Dean White Cooks with Students

Kandace Fernandez

The Dean of Students, Dr. Adrienne White, and Chef David White hosted a free event for Mount students called Cooking with the Dean.

Mount students were invited to sign up the week before via email and spend their lunch hour in O’Hara learning fun facts and nutritious tips while making salsa and guacamole from scratch. The atmosphere was easy-going and welcoming.

Students trickled into O’Hara, casually greeting one another and chatting. Forgetting about midterm stress as it seemed to dissipate or at least be on hiatus.

Tables were prepped with aprons, bowls, spoons, forks, fresh ingredients, recipes and tortilla chips. Despite the printed recipes on each table, the cooks in training were often encouraged to add things for texture, increase or decrease suggested amounts of ingredients to suit their preferences and taste and smell everything along the way.

White walked participants through the recipe and salsa-making process. Between mixing and tasting, he would casually share tips on selecting produce and provide interesting facts about the various ingredients.

The accomplished chef considers himself a “big farm-to-table guy” whose passion and excitement about fresh ingredients are evident.

Aside from teaching Mount students to cook, he also teaches kids how to shop and buy staple foods at a Gettysburg Farmers Market. Multiple salsa makers were surprised at White’s insight on tomatillo, that it is a berry, not a green tomato. Students mashed avocados with their hands while he went on to explain how red onions can be rinsed off to mute their strong flavor.

Both Dr. White and White noted the students who were doing this for the first time, but many others had begun participating in Cooking with the Dean events last semester when they kicked the series off with a sushi-making class.

Among them was Alijandra Wallace (C’26), the very first MSMU Dining Services Ambassador. Wallace explained how she came to the sushi-making event in the fall, where she initially met Dr. White and was recruited for the paid position helping with the dining service events. Wallace would encourage other students to “Come out and try it…even if it’s not a food you normally like. It’s fun. And everyone loves to eat!”

When everyone began packing up their salsas and guacamoles to go, Dr. White requested that the students scan a QR code to take a survey about the event. She and White also asked everyone what they’d like to make in future cooking events. Grilling in April.

Where students will get the chance to make pasta, soup and burrito bowls. White hopes that students who are far from home will attend more Cooking with the Dean events to learn more about the food available to them and to give feedback on things they’d like to make on campus to feel more at home.