Following the release of “The College Man’s Cookbook” and its sequel, “The College Woman’s Cookbook”, University of Georgia alum George Hirsch Jr. and his mother, Carrie Hirsch, teamed up again to create a third publication for a brand new demographic of college students: vegetarians.
“The College Student’s Vegetarian Cookbook” includes 100 recipes developed by the mother-son duo that caters to meat-free eaters with recipes like quinoa tacos, black bean burgers and green olive tapenade. George Hirsch explains that with each recipe, the recipe is only the starting point. From there, the reader can be as flexible and as comfortable as they want.
“Baking is like the science, and cooking is more like the art,” George Hirsch said. “So I don’t have to look at the page for every single step if I don’t have to.”
While George Hirsch is not fully vegetarian, he limits his meat intake and tries to do three to four days per week where he eats mostly vegetarian meals. He explains that the benefits of a balanced diet are what motivate him to eat vegetarian, and the sustainability of vegetarian meals in terms of climate impact also plays a large part.
George Hirsch explained that the duo used the previous publications as a template for this cookbook — every book contains 10 differently-themed chapters each filled with 10 recipes. There is a chapter for each category of food including grab-and-go, sandwiches, soups and entrees.
As a college student, studying and going to class takes up a large portion of the day and leaves almost no time for cooking or preparing meals, George Hirsch explains. For beginner cooks, crossing the threshold of where to start when cooking can be intimidating. Having a guide on where to begin can change perspective and comfort level in the kitchen, he said.
Once the college student has completed the book, there is a cut-out diploma at the end to signify a graduation of the cookbook. “People tend to like that, and it’s just less intimidating and that's what we tried to accomplish: making cooking, shopping and autonomy, more approachable and accessible,” George Hirsch said.