Binghamton University Dining Services (BUDS) will be offering a series of three free cooking classes to students during the month of March.

Each of the classes will have its own theme: “Breakfast Basics,” “Quick and Easy Lunch Ideas” and “Dinner on a Dime.” The classes are free and are open to any students. According to Faith Porzilli, a nutrition peer educator for Dining Services and a senior majoring in biology, the recipes were developed by executive chefs from BUDS.

“The format of the classes are a mixture of demonstration and hands-on application,” she wrote in an email to Pipe Dream. “In a class the chef will be reviewing over some general cooking skill (ex: knife skills), demonstrating a couple recipes, and providing a recipe for students to perform themselves. Some recipes included in this series are oat muffins, quick and crunchy lettuce wraps, and a homemade tomato soup. All of the recipes have the goal of being rather inexpensive to make, nutritionally sound, and not too time intensive.”

Porzilli said she came up with the idea for the series of classes last semester and has been working with Kara Perez, retail executive chef for BUDS, and Alexa Schmidt, a registered dietitian for BUDS, to implement the program. She said that though BUDS has offered classes and demonstrations before, this is the first time a student has organized them and the first time BUDS is partnering with the B-Healthy initiative to host them.

For Porzilli, cooking and baking have always been important and she said she hopes others find the same value in them through the classes.

“I hope students are able to take the skills they learn in these classes and utilize them in their everyday lives,” she wrote. “As a college student, it is easy to fall into the lifestyle of ramen and easy mac, I want to help Binghamton University students see that there are affordable, healthy options available to them.”

The classes will be held on Thursdays in March from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the cooking classroom in Old Digman Hall. Preregistration is required via email to fporzil1@binghamton.edu.