Indian spices and aromas fill the air as a group of 22 students received their assignments for their first hands-on cooking lesson. Team eggplant, team onion and the rest of the teams threw on their aprons to concoct a homemade Southern Indian meal.

Jasmine rice, vegetable samosas, vegetable korma and rice pudding with raisins were the four dishes prepared by the new international cooking class, A-Broad Cuisine.

A-Broad Cuisine, hosted by Ecumenical Christian Ministries, held its second cooking session last night in the ECM building and focused this week’s class on traditional Indian food. The class is held every other week on Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. and there are five more to look forward to this semester.

Rebecca Lo, senior from Coffeyville, heard about the class from friends.

“I really love Indian food so I thought it would be interesting to check it out,” Lo said.

Chelsea Mertz, a senior from Topeka and one of the coordinators on A-Broad Cuisine, said the class is set up on a first-come, first-serve basis. Students can sign up in the ECM or e-mail an RSVP to Mertz at chelsjaye@gmail.com the week prior to the class.

“We ask for a five dollar donation for each class that helps with the food costs,” Mertz said. “It’s quite a deal for all the food you get. Plus, after we make everything, we sit down to dinner and enjoy it all.”

Mertz said they break up the class into about four smaller groups and each group takes one recipe, either an appetizer, entrée, side dish or dessert. Guest cooks lead each session and teach according to their specialties, she said.

Teresa Bruno, a junior from Mexico, said she thinks she will have to come back for the next session.

“I got some new ideas,” Bruno said. “It was very nice to have contact with the food and see everyone cooking together.”

After being approached last semester to coordinate the class by Thad Holcombe, adviser and pastor at ECM, Mertz and Ashley Davis, a junior from Wakarusa and co-coordinator of A-Broad Cuisine, developed the ideas for the class over winter break. They chose themes, guest cooks and class dates.

“For each class we pick out recipes about a week ahead of time,” Mertz said. “The weekend before the class we start tinkering with the recipes and we do the grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon.”

Sunday evening they make up the plan for how the class will run; who will teach the appetizer, the entrée, the side dish and the dessert, Mertz said. The food is vegetarian and they make sure to provide vegan versions of the recipes so everyone has an option to eat.

Katherine Logan, a graduate student from Kansas City, taught last night’s class. Mertz said Logan has been experimenting with different types of Indian food for a while. Throughout the class Logan explained what ingredients each recipe incorporated and helped each group to prepare their dish.

Nancy Xaio Liang, a junior from China, said she went to the class to further her cooking skills.

“Since I’m living off campus next semester I thought it would be good to learn more about cooking,” Liang said. “I also think Indian food is always delicious.”

After an hour and a half of cooking up all of the dishes, a group of people set the tables and organized the dining area for a Southern Indian feast.

At the end of the meal everyone did the dishes in a synchronized manner; one person did the washing, one did drying, and the rest put everything away.

Davis said next session, on March 8, they will be making traditional Irish cuisine since it falls so close to St. Patrick’s Day.

Krista Gampper, a senior from Iowa, said she got to do a little bit of everything in the kitchen. Her favorite part was stuffing the eggplants.

“I’ve tried cooking eggplants by myself and they turned out horribly,” Gampper said. “I’m excited to be a part of an eggplant that goes well.”

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