A group of roughly 50 University of Missouri-St. Louis students crowded in to a cramped space in Oak Hall with empty stomachs and open minds, eager to learn about healthy eating habits.
Kevin T. Roberts, better known as Kevin the Food Dude, came to give a cooking presentation as part of the Welcome Week festivities organized by Student Life, which took place on campus all last week.
Roberts, who has been cooking since he was a child, was a contestant on Food Network's hit series, "Next Food Network Star." Although he did not win, he won over the crowd here at UM-St. Louis.
Roberts came to the campus to teach college students a thing or two about how to eat better and how to prepare a few tasty treats for themselves. Roberts explained why students should cook.
And the reasons did not just include, warding off the dreaded "freshman fifteen," which Roberts said has now become the "freshman twenty," but he pointed out the additional benefits, for students' budgets and their social lives.
In addition to teaching students why they should cook, Roberts reminded them that while many college students do not eat breakfast in the mornings.
It is "the most important meal of the day" because it jump starts your metabolism.
Roberts proceeded to show students how to slap together a breakfast sandwich, made from a bagel, some cream cheese, a slice of tomato and a few slices of luncheon meat.
"You can have all five food groups at breakfast," he said.
Next on the agenda, was a quick lesson on cutting, without chopping off a few fingers.
"Curl your fingers in [toward your body], and if [the knife] does slip, it can't get you," he said.
Roberts taught students about shopping for natural and non-processed foods, by shopping in the outer ring of a grocery store.
Jessica Long, student activities coordinator, who helped organize Roberts' appearance at UM-St. Louis said the "good educational program" was something she would have liked to have attended in her college years.
"I think the nature of college is to lose much of that nutrition part," Long said.
"I was interested to see what he was going to bring to the table," Long said, "I was kind of impressed with some of the stuff he brought, I don't remember having a program like this."
During the presentation, Roberts served some tester tid-bits to students. Brett Evans, freshman, computer science and accounting said the favorite thing he tried was a bit of Rasin Bran cereal and a splash of soymilk.
He had never tred soymilk before and he said he was "probably" going to start drinking it regularly.
Evans least favorite thing he tried was a tiny snippet of ginger. "The ginger tore apart my tongue," Evans said.
Throughout the interactive event, Roberts tossed bottles of hot sauce to crowd members who answered his questions and partcipated along with him.
Tee Ryan, senior, media studies attended the event and took home a bottle of the sauce. "I'm happy because I just ran out," he said.
"The buffalo wing sauce is amazing," Ryan added.
There was also a hot sauce drinking contest, in which three students participated. Steven Youngbauer, freshman, business, won that competition and a copy of Roberts' cookbook, "Munchies."
While still carrying the bouquet of a recently swallowed bottle of Frank's RedHot sauce, Youngbauer said, "My mouth is fine, but my throat is on fire."
"[Roberts] really taught us a lot," Youngbauer said.
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