Catch up on everything to do with student life in Kent this week with Azaria Gayle.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Kent Student 101 live here on KMTV. I'm Azaria Gale and this is a show for
00:26students by students. Each week we'll explore different facets of student life
00:31across Kent with a range of topics and segments. This week we're going to be
00:36focusing on student meals. First let's explore on-campus options for students
00:43who might not know how to cook for themselves. Sam Cochrane went down to the
00:47Medway campus to talk to the catering team to find out how they work to
00:52accommodate all the students dietary dietary needs. With so many students
00:59spending so much time on university campuses in Kent, student eating and the
01:03ways to find their meals can be such an important part of students life. Today
01:08we're here at the Profiting Cafe on the Medway campus to find out more about how
01:12healthy eating can benefit students and the way in which the catering staff change
01:17up their meals to benefit student well-being. I look after all the catering
01:22side in the Medway campus. I work for a company called Baxter Story so that's why we
01:28are providing food for all these university students and the Medway. Most of our
01:33students are very different diversity backgrounds so we try to provide a food
01:37that fits with all the diversity and all the ethnic background students so we get
01:43a large you know variety of food every day so and also everything fresh to cook so
01:48we don't do anything frozen or bought in food everything fresh they cooked in the
01:52each day. We also caught up with some of the cooking staff to find out their
01:56thoughts. I think the main reason why when I sort of compile the menus is I'm
02:00kind of thinking like we've got a lot of foreign students here so I'm thinking
02:03they're they're away from home they need something nutritional it needs to like so
02:08all our meat is halal because it's like it just ticks the boxes for them when they come
02:12away they can rest assured that they're going to get what you know we say they're
02:16going to get so keeping it balanced and fresh all the you know some fresh
02:20ingredients. Well we're looking at obviously the student backgrounds and
02:24every year's in techs and then also you get loads of feedback from the student and
02:28academic what they expect and obviously from us and we look at the previous
02:33years and now sales and the food and then based on that we're looking at what we can offer
02:38the following years and what is the more popular dishes and that kind of offer.
02:42Favourite for students which we can't take off the menu is the roast chicken legs so
02:46we do different kind of flavours, marinate it, always halal, always allergen free but
02:51yeah that just flies out the door to be fair. Especially in Madwee campus it's
02:55very isolated it's not much you know catering outlet on the side either you have
03:01to walk out or to drive 10-15 minutes so that's what we try to do catering
03:05they make sure they're fit for everyone needs. I know where I'll be going next
03:09time I'm hungry on university campus Sam Cochran, KMTV.
03:17Next while on the Madwee campus we ask students what their favourite meals are
03:22when they go out and cook at home for themselves.
03:26Tipen is quite good, we usually get chilli chicken, loaded rice, it's quite good as
03:32well. Usually I don't like fast food stuff and I mean I usually like the
03:38homemade food and stuff I made myself and but sometimes at weekends I usually like
03:43to have pizza and some fried chicken. My comfort meal is pasta, any kind really like
03:49with seafood, with meat, anything. For uni lunches I normally make a salad the night
03:54before which I have like rice and some vegetables in and then for dinners I
03:57like to try and make some home correct meals for me and my partner.
04:00I quite like making like chilli pastas and like vegetable soups a lot.
04:04If I want to cook myself I might go for Eastern European soup like Ukrainian
04:09borscht or any kind of other so borscht is like beetroot soup with meat and
04:16vegetables it's like really a hearty meal. You serve it with sour cream and it just
04:22warms your soul. I usually cook everything else I mean some chicken, some beef and
04:27even even rice for me. I also kind of make like either cookies or banana bread but my
04:34own recipes but yeah. So I normally try and make like a pasta for dinner or sometimes
04:39do an egg fried rice. For me it's a hub because full table and we have
04:46a veg item in there. Well I don't know about you but I'm certainly hungry. Now
04:52but for more if you have no but I have no idea what to make when I get home.
04:56Thankfully our reporter Arthur Navarro Allen has been in the kitchen this week to
05:02share with us how to make one of his best dishes. Let's take a look. So as a
05:07student living from home I usually didn't really enjoy cooking that much I found it
05:11too difficult and I wasn't really making things I like to eat they didn't really
05:15taste amazing. So I developed this recipe it's very cheap it's very easy it
05:20tastes amazing and I'm going to show you today. The reason this recipe is so dead
05:24simple is because it really doesn't have that many ingredients at all. All you
05:27need is some spaghetti, some like salmon, some pesto, some like herby cheese that
05:38melts quite well and salt and pepper and that's it and it takes maybe 15
05:45minutes to make. Now I like to use spaghetti because that's my favorite pasta
05:50but you can use any type of pasta you want and it will taste the exact same as
05:55long as the cheese is fully coating it. So after you've drained the pasta and you
05:59turn the heat down it's really simple we do add the pesto in first make sure it's
06:04all mixed around so there's no big clumps of pesto. You keep the heat on to help it
06:09melt and just make sure everything's sort of coated quite evenly. If you like your
06:16food less fatty you can omit the butter entirely. I like to add it in because it
06:21makes it a little bit creamier and just tastes a little bit nicer. So you turn the heat up a
06:26little bit and you add a healthy amount of your cheese. It's important to keep the
06:41pan on a low heat during this part of the process and stir regularly to ensure
06:47everything is mixed together. This is also the time that you can add other
06:59ingredients that you might want. You could add vegetables like peas or even a
07:04different choice of meat. Finally you just top it with a little bit of pepper just
07:10as much as you want and it's as easy as that. Now if you don't mind me this is going
07:16to be my lunch so I'll see you around. Well that pasta looked delicious and now
07:23I'm joined in the studio by Arthur to talk more about one of his favourite
07:27hoppies as just demonstrated in that package cooking. Arthur thank you so much
07:32for joining me. Thank you for having me. Well when did you start cooking? Was it when
07:36you were younger or was it as a need when you started uni? I started cooking over
07:41lockdown. It was a skill that my mum was very very keen that I developed so we used
07:48to go grocery shopping together obviously lockdown allowing and we'd come back and
07:52we'd just get a whole bunch of stuff and we'd try and make something with what we
07:56got. Usually we'd make it together and then as I got better and more confident
08:00she would just let me just sort of have my way with the groceries and I just make
08:05something for dinner that we really enjoyed and yeah so it's I do enjoy cooking because
08:10it does remind me of of my mum and I yeah I love my mum so. That's great. Have you tried
08:17experimenting with cooking like have you tried cooking something new recently? I would love
08:22to say yes I really really would but sadly right now I haven't had the time I have a sort
08:27of bullpen of meals that I'll keep coming back to again and again you know chicken curry lots
08:33of pasta stuff lots of maybe like a like a pizza once in a while but just like quite
08:40simple stuff that I can make quite easily with the groceries I usually have in the house.
08:47When I'm less busy over the summer I do want to try some new recipes learn some more stuff
08:52but right now unfortunately I'm sticking to what I know. So as a student as you mentioned
08:57it is quite difficult like balancing time like having that time to cook but do you think
09:03it's easy to find the cook to sorry do you think it's easier to find the time to cook or is it easier
09:09just to get like a takeout? It's certainly easier to to get a takeout in terms of time especially
09:15but I think you do lose something you know obviously sometimes you're just too busy you can't think
09:22about it anything you just need to get food inside of you but I find cooking quite relaxes me actually
09:28so if I try and make as much time for cooking whenever but especially when I'm sort of
09:34working hard on something it's good to just be able to take a step back from it find time to cook
09:39find time to do this thing I love and you know make something with my own two hands and I think that
09:43really sort of energizes me when I'm when I'm busy to to make something and remind myself you know
09:49oh this is you know I'm doing something I really enjoy and I come back to whatever task it was I was doing
09:54sort of new energy but that's not always the case sometimes I'm just way too pressed for time
09:59I will have to get takeout but the time management can be tricky yeah for sure
10:04so as someone who likes cooking different dishes but might be tight for time as a student
10:10what are your thoughts on meal prepping? Meal prepping uh I wouldn't do it personally
10:16I think uh sort of the creation process is what matters to me the most not sort of the
10:22the end food although I do I do love my food but uh I think meal prepping is very useful for sure
10:29if you are especially fitness minded or you you travel a lot and you just when you come back you
10:35haven't got a lot of time so it is something that is worth looking into and obviously you can have fun
10:41meal prepping you can make yourself a lot of stuff it is very convenient personally isn't something I
10:47would do I love I you know I love my cooking too much but it is very useful and very sort of
10:52reliable and flexible brilliant thank you so much for joining me you've been watching Kent Student 101
11:02live on KMTV there's more news made just for Kent throughout this evening don't forget you can always
11:08keep up to date with the latest news across your county by logging into kmtv.co.uk you can also
11:16keep us on your social timelines by liking us on Facebook and following us on Instagram and TikTok
11:21we also have a range of special programs Invicta Sports, Kent on Climate, Kent Chronicles, Kent Film Club
11:29based in Kent and the Kent Politics Show which you can catch throughout this this week or you can
11:35catch up on our website but for me for now have a very good evening thank you so much for watching
11:41Kent Student 101 have a great evening goodbye