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Student Wellness Centre

Home Cooked at Mac

Food & Nutrition

The McMaster Student Wellness Centre is extremely excited to have introduced Home-cooked at Mac in the Fall 2022 and Winter 2023 terms. Thank you to the McMaster Okanagan Committee for funding this program, supporting its development, and maintaining their endearing commitment to our community’s health and well-being.  

What is Home-cooked at Mac?  

There are few better ways to learn about one’s culture than through preparing and sharing food. Here’s what you can expect from Home-cooked at Mac!  

Home-cooked at Mac Structure  

Recipe Instructional Videos 

  • We released 4 videos throughout the year to the SWC YouTube Channel. Subscribing to our channel is a great way to keep up with Home-cooked at Mac and other programs at the SWC! 
  • Each video features a member from our McMaster community highlighting a dish from their culture.
  • We were fortunate enough to have quite a few McMaster community members be joined by their parents in our instructional videos to learn about even more different stories, perspectives, and cooking tips! All dishes were chosen to be easy-to-cook, balanced, and quick – perfect for students.

Meal Kits  *(This portion of Home Cooked is now closed)

  • We always have those new recipes that we want to try, but it’s a lot of work to go out and buy new ingredients that are often in packages so large that you don’t end up using all of it. We get it! That’s why accompanying the release of each recipe instructional video in Home-cooked at Mac, we will be having meal kits for pick up that include the ingredients you’ll need to try the recipe from that video. 
  • Sign-ups for these meal kits will be released approximately a week before each video so keep an eye out on the SWC social media for details!
  • Even if you don’t pick up a meal kit, we hope that you’ll try to cook along with these new dishes whenever you get the chance. 

Who’s in the videos?  

Session 1 

Chefs: Dr. Adrianne Xavier, Assistant Professor in Anthropology and Indigenous Studies, and her mother Kitty Lynn 

Dish: Twisted Sisters Soup 

Region: Six Nations of the Grand River 

Watch the Instruction Video 

Get the Recipe

Session 2 

Chefs: Nicholas Chenje, Head Chef at Afrolicious Restaurant, and Morola Fasina, Marketing and Communications Associate at McMaster’s Black Student Success Centre 

Dish: Chakalaka Grilled Cheese 

Region: South Africa  

Watch the Instruction Video

Get the Recipe

Session 3

Chefs: Zeinab Khawaja, Health Promoter at the Student Wellness Centre, and her dad, Faizullah Khawaja 

Dish: Chicken Karahi  

Region: Pakistan  

Watch the Instruction Video 

Get the Recipe

Session 4

Chefs: Parsia Parnian, McMaster student, and his mom, Neda Parnian  

Dish: Tahchin  

Region: Iran  

Watch the Instructional Video 

Get the Recipe

Home-cooked at Mac Land Acknowledgment 

All shots for Home-cooked at Mac were filmed at the McMaster Alumni House located on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations, and within the lands protected by the “Dish with One Spoon” wampum agreement. This agreement encourages everyone living on the lands to share and collectively maintain the land and its resources. Some central tenets of the agreement include leaving enough for others and protecting the vitality of the land itself.  

It is an immense privilege to be on this land and share our foods and cultures while learning to source ingredients sustainably and take care of each other.