I have to admit it was with a little trepidation that I entered High Cotton last Thursday night to write this week’s food story.

It had nothing to do with the story itself, after all what could be better than watching Karry and Doug Hosford introduce a class full of college-aged students to the ease of being in a kitchen and preparing a meal on their own?

The nervousness came from the fact that there among the students was my very own college sophomore, Matthew.

When I brought up the fact that there was going to be a cooking class for college-aged kids Matthew was all for going and I was very pleased, especially since this fall he is out of the dorm and moving in the recently sister-vacated townhouse we have in Oxford.

All I really wanted was for Matthew to get a few tips for working in a kitchen on his own. And honestly, as much as I love to cook, I wasn’t sure I would have the patience to walk him through the basics of knife safety and trying to get him to eat new things.

Much like his dad, Matthew is a meat and potatoes kind of guy. His favorite vegetable? That’s easy, rice and gravy or mashed potatoes and gravy.

Oh, sorry, you mean a real vegetable. For Matt, there are two green ones, green beans and broccoli and one yellow one, corn. He will eat a salad, although he sees it strictly as a stalling technique in a restaurant, one that only delays his meat dish getting to the table.

Matthew has learned how to prepare scrambled eggs and sausage and he microwaves a mean hot dog, so I knew the class would be good start for getting acquainted with a kitchen and its equipment.

When I got to High Cotton and saw the menu, I laughed to myself at the coconut milk in the chicken dish. I didn’t know if Matthew even knew what that was much less if he would eat it.

And I knew there would be no disguising it. There on the counter was the can, label intact. It wouldn’t be like at home when mom sneaked spinach into stuffed pasta shells and promised she didn’t chop the basil fine enough. Or when I told him that he could put gravy on top of it but the reason brown rice was brown was because it already had gravy in it. Yeah, I know that’s pretty bad, but I really wanted him to branch out.

I saw him raise his eyebrows when Karry brought out the coconut milk and the curry paste. And I was pleasantly surprised to see him at least get a spoon to taste the finished dish. But I was thrilled when I heard him say “Wow, this is really good.” Later he told me that the “gravy” was his favorite part. When he was in Doug’s group he wasn’t thrilled when Doug put caramel sauce over perfectly good vanilla ice cream (his favorite) and he just couldn’t bring himself to taste the sautéed spinach that was served with the grilled pork tenderloin. But he did eat and enjoy the salad even though it had some “weird” lettuce in it.

So all and all I had a successful and enjoyable evening. I got a great story, some wonderful recipes that I can’t wait to make myself and I got to see my son try some new things.

And, even though I have a feeling that microwaved hot dogs are still going to be high on his list, he did learn that rotisserie chicken could be a quick and delicious meal option.

Christina Hall can be reached at christina.hall@natchezdemocrat.com.