(Photo courtesy of Jeanne Snyder-Pham)
From childhood cooking to founding the Culinary Club with just $46.32, chef Pham shares the trial-filled journey to bring the world of cuisine to campus
BY CHRISTIAN SEGOVIA, SPORTS EDITOR
It’s tough work being Mason’s MasterChef’s Gordon Ramsay, but Jeanne Snyder-Pham makes due while presiding over the GMU Culinary Club. Pham manages the Club alongside majoring in psychology, with a concentration in clinical psychology and minoring in biology.
From three to four years old, Pham’s mother and grandmother taught her how to move through the kitchen. “They would do hand over hand, like, show me how to mix. They would help me decorate things, like that sort of thing. I started off making pancakes with the mix and stuff, and I got mostly independent in the kitchen.”
Pham studies ingredient ratios when cooking. Pham said that when making burgers or other meat based foods, “you need a certain fat content, you need a certain liquid content, like that kind of thing…[I have] my Baker’s formulas down, like one part liquid to one part fat to one flour.”
When cooking food, Pham focuses on taste more than appearance. “I care a lot about flavor in terms of, like salinity, umami flavors, vinegarines,” Pham said. “For savory dishes, and then, like, for sugar, it’s a matter of just, like, bringing a lot of depth to certain things.”
Pham said if she had to cook in front of five judges, she would make her mom’s three-day Phở recipe. While it’s a common Vietnamese dish, Pham would incorporate a modern twist and technique to her family’s recipe.
Pham credits her family for connecting her to their savory dishes and introducing her to Vietnamese cultural recipes. A lot of inspiration comes from her grandma. “She used to own a restaurant, way long ago, and she would apply the same rules that she had in her kitchen, she would apply in ours,” Pham said. “She set me up [with a] love for cooking, and this love for food…She had me thinking about flavor profiles, separating different tastes, and different spices.”
(Photo courtesy of Jeanne Snyder-Pham)
Being co-president of the Culinary Club, Pham’s favorite part is seeing how much the club has grown since taking over. “I started it with $46.32 of baking supplies and a lot of grit and budgeting…I watched the Culinary Club grow from 300 people to 500 people to now, at least 1000 people over different platforms,” Pham said. “It’s opened up, like, a lot of different opportunities, and I’ve gotten to see like I’ve made, like my best friends over here, like I’ve gotten to see like groups grow in skill, in size.”
Pham believes a good way to connect with food is through culture in the way it transcends its language and history, allowing people to connect with each other in the culinary club.
(Photo courtesy of Jeanne Snyder-Pham)
Outside of the Culinary Club, Pham works as a research assistant, a nail salon receptionist and a substitute teacher. In her free time, she likes to play games, read and volunteer if she has time. “I would like to make cards to send to children, in the hospital or volunteer programs where I speak with elderly patients with dementia and keep them company,” Pham said.
“I founded the Psychology Club at my high school, so I like to volunteer my time with my old AP Psychology teacher. I’ll help her come up with lesson plans, or I would guest speak at these meetings,” Pham said. “I would basically be encouraging students to consider joining psychology outside of being a therapist.”
Pham would speak on different opportunities; including research, law and political science. “I put them in contact with different people that I met during my time here and give them a head start on what they want to do in the future,” Pham said.
Pham doesn’t regret a single moment of being in psychology. In her field, psychologists are not limited to a career in therapy. Opportunities include becoming a doctor, psychiatrist, and many other career pathways. Pham interned for a senator at Capitol Hill as a psychology major, which helped her understand people and the way the world works.
After graduating in May, Pham will be vacationing in Vietnam in July, indulging in her culture’s delicacies. In the fall, she hopes to apply to doctorate programs in the coming Fall for PHD or PSYD. Above all else, Pham looks to continue cooking for herself, friends, and family as she looks to become a clinical psychologist in the future.
