You should try to elevate your apartment kitchen to two-star quality.

Why the very specific star count? Well, that’s kind of a long answer.

First of all, five-star quality certainly isn’t happening. We’re trying to feed ourselves, not challenge Gordon Ramsay to a cook-off. Besides, what college kid can afford sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts? If you can, please lend me some.

Still, phoning it in and living on fast food won’t leave you better off. You can do the math; two meals a day for seven days a week at about $9 per meal brings your weekly total to $126. You can buy a truckload with a third of that budget at County Market.

So why not bump your culinary skills from zero stars to one with a nightly batch of plain scrambled eggs and be done with it? That should be enough of a compromise between zero stars and five, right?

Alas, the first meal I ever concocted was a one-star meal. I didn’t know any better. Shooting for something quick, I cooked some white rice and stirred it up with chopped carrots and serrano peppers. That was it.

You have to understand that I grew up with foodies for parents. I inherited their love for spice. They still manage to make an exciting dinner look easy.

What I had not inherited was their magic touch. My bowl of rice made paper sound relatively appetizing. One thing was clear: I wasn’t going to be able to handle this every night.

At this moment, my roommate walked by and practically gasped. He hails from even greater food royalty than me — his mom owns a company in New Delhi that cooks special orders for customers. I’ve tried some of the stuff she makes; I’d go all the way to India for more.

As if to save me from a burning building, Vidush swiped my helping of disappointment stew from the table and said these exact words: “It’s not too late.”

It was all a blur. He whipped out a wok, heated some oil and chopped garlic before tossing in the half-eaten contents of my bowl. It only took him a minute to mix in some ginger paste, ground pepper and masala. Another minute later, and dinner 2.0 was in front of me. 

I’ll be darned — what started as a bland, boring pile now tasted like a home-cooked meal.

So, why do you want two-star quality? I’ll answer for you: because one-star quality only gets you the fast and cheap stuff. Two-star quality reminds you why you like eating. All you need, depending on how well versed you are in the cooking world, is a place to start.

Allow me.

Carbonara — As long as you can boil water, you can make pasta. If you’re a little bored of red sauce, try this recipe out; it’s just as easy to work with, and it uses simple ingredients to create moist, delicious noodles. (This might just be the vegetarian in me, but it’s good without the bacon, too!)

Fried Rice — The beloved restaurant side dish, enjoyed within the comfort of your own home. Feel free to mix and match with the veggies you like.

Quinoa Salad — Quite possibly my favorite dish of all time. If summer had a taste, this would be it for me. This recipe still looks pretty good, though I personally like to add black beans and, dare I say, avocado. Great to stick in the fridge and save for lunch the next day!

Tommy is a senior in Engineering.

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