The water is boiling and the noodles are waiting. Rene’ Young-Ledford, a sophomore at Kauai High, tells us a little about what it’s like to be a teen who digs the cooking vibe.

“Cooking is a good way to make friends, passing out baked goods at school. Cooking just really is a good outlet for my creativity at this point in my life.” She pours the noodles into the vat of boiling water with the skill and finesse of an ancient pro.

Teens today need some sort of way to channel all their excess energy, and many choose from activities like surfing, skating, or being little punks. This is all fine for some, but there are certain teens who are above and beyond such tricks. Rene chose to express herself through cooking. This was not only a better choice for letting out energy than egging houses or doing drugs, it satisfied a more primal need: hunger. According to Rene, her motivation to begin cooking was her “intense love of eating food. [She] just really wanted to be able to create the things that [she] loved so much.”

The noodles start to bend and twist; Rene’ takes one out and throws it against the wall. It sticks.

“On occasion I will change a few ingredients to make a recipe my own but I’ve never really experimented with starting from scratch. In the future I might like to try it though,” she says as she pours the noodles through a strainer.

“The secret to any good recipe is to add a dash of tequila. This works for a range of recipes from dishes like shepherds pie to treats likes Christmas cookies,” she says, speaking of one of her family’s treasured cooking secrets (the amount of tequila, she would not tell). Rene picks up a noodle a pops it into her mouth.

“I know some people who say that after cooking food you don’t want to eat it. I think it really depends on my mood while making the food. If I’m feeling down, then my sadness or anger pours into the food, and I know this and it makes the food taste bad to me. Of course it’s all in my mind. Everyone else finds the food to be fine.”

And for Rene, cooking for others is what it’s really all about anyway. She is not the type of cook who does recipes meant for one. Rene believes that all recipes should be made in bulk in order to let everyone sample the fruits of her labor. “I believe that cooking for other people creates inner happiness and peace of mind. I would go crazy were it not for all the support of my eaters.”

“I like to whip up homemade pizza for me and my friends on movie night every Thursday. Also when my gal pals and I get together for a study session I am usually nominated to conjure up some sweet tasty treats such as peanut butter bars or oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I find anything with no nutritional value to be a teen food.”