Culinary House Community

This past academic year, I lived in one of Carleton’s Interest House Communities. We have many interest houses here at Carleton, such as Farm (focusing on sustainability), CANOE (for people who enjoy the outdoors), and a variety of cultural houses. I, however, lived in the Culinary Interest House focused on a broader appreciation of food. I truly loved living there this year and want to share my experiences within this community!

Why I Picked Culinary

During spring term of my freshman year, I thought to myself about my housing options for the next year. I ended up deciding I wanted a tight-knit housing community. My room draw number also happened to be horrible. Thus, I decided that an interest house would be a good space for me. I had a pretty strong passion for cooking so Culinary (colloquially called Cul) would be the right fit. 

Cooking!

Of course, at a house named ‘Culinary’, we cook! As part of our responsibilities to the house, we partner up and cook dinner for the rest of the house once a week. Personally, I think the food is really good—sometimes we don’t cook enough but that is a whole different story. Some of my favorite dinners have been crêpes, vegan pasta bolognese, and our Thanksgiving feast! Cooking is a great time to destress and take a break from homework. You have two hours where you are just chopping, stirring, and washing dishes all while chatting with a housemate. I find it very relaxing and love the conversations.

House Activities

Living with 11 other people left me with no shortage of things to do this year. We often had planned events like a board game night or the aforementioned Thanksgiving dinner. My favorite events, however, were our impromptu activities. Sometimes I would be scrolling through TikTok in the living room with my housemates after finishing my homework, and suddenly, I would be whisked away to an activity. Admittedly, it was usually just going to Blast (a local ice cream shop), but it was fun! 

One of my favorite memories of these impromptu moments was during the first week of fall term. After everyone had just met, a bunch of us decided to go swimming in the Cannon River (kind of gross, I know). It was so much fun to just have people who would go out and do random activities with me. Living in an interest house, there is no shortage of moments like this. Everyone is there for the community and loves to help build it.

Next Year

As sad as I was to see all the Cul House seniors leave at commencement this year, I am excited about the future! We had a cute send-off for the seniors where I baked a nice cake (pictured above). It was a fun end to our year living together. It reminded me why I love the community that Cul fosters. So, I am excited to live there again next year with a new crop of housemates. I will be studying abroad in Paris this fall, so I won’t get to meet the new Cul members until the winter. I loved meeting them at our dinner together though. All and all I am excited about the future, Cul House forever!

Aidan (he/him) is a rising Junior from Batavia, IL. He is a Religion and French and Francophone Studies double major with a Cross-Cultural Studies minor. You can often find him at the campus’s two dining halls chatting with other students while working as a student dining hall manager. He enjoys spending his time outside of class cooking and hanging out with his housemates in the Culinary Interest House and performing in Carleton’s sketch comedy group. Aidan also loves to broadcast music to the greater Northfield community on the college radio station, KRLX 88.1 FM. Meet the other bloggers!