Through his hours spent in the kitchen, David Wen (12) has developed his own cooking style. He tastes everything before moving to the next step, seasoning dishes gradually. He believes that a great sauce can make lower quality meat bearable. And with his favorite savory dish, ribeye steak—he has mastered the perfect sear.

“I’m the type of person to look at the recipe, but when I actually go cook it I’ll avoid following it and just go by my own taste,” David said. “I’ll look at the general ingredients, but not focus on the specific amounts and do it my own way.”

David started cooking in elementary school as his older sister’s honorary sous chef. He gradually worked his way from baking to preparing main dishes, influenced by television shows like Masterchef.

“[Masterchef] is a pretty inspirational show,” David said with a laugh. “You think Gordon Ramsey is screaming at [the contestants], but he’s actually very supportive.”

Nowadays, David reads food blogs for inspiration. He particularly enjoys Spanish cuisine, and recently created a video for Pórtico, Harker’s Spanish newsletter, teaching how to bake a Spanish sponge cake called tres leches.

“Spanish food is my favorite because of different flavors we can’t find in America,” he said. It’s similar to Mexican, but it has differences too.”

Outside of his house, David cooks for families of hospital patients at JW House, a hospitality center in Santa Clara next to the Kaiser Permanente hospital. He volunteers there with two other friends once a month, and they cook meals ranging from Chinese style cuisine to David’s favorite Spanish-style food. However, he believes that the best part of volunteering there is being able to interact with the families.

“You have all these new ideas for dishes and you just sort of turn it into some spin off of a comfort food,” he said. “There’s so many ways you can take a dish, and if you really care about what you cook for JW House or anywhere really, the end result basically always makes people’s eyes light up.”

Senior Jimmy Lin, this year’s ASB president and one of David’s close friends, believes David has matured greatly throughout the four years of high school.

“David’s the type of person to constantly support those around him,” Jimmy said. “Whether it’s baking food for his Spanish classmates, attending his friends’ summer presentations, or meeting on weekends for student council issues, he’s always looking for ways to serve others.”

David is looking forward to putting his culinary expertise to use in college.

“I’m definitely interested in cooking in my dorm,” David said. “If there’s the opportunity, I would also like to take food science classes or food related classes in general.”

David’s other hobbies outside of cooking include playing multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game Dota 2 as well as tennis. He has been a part of the Harker varsity tennis team since his freshman year in addition to playing in outside tournaments. Last year, he was ranked as the number one singles player on the team.

“Sometimes he makes sarcastic jokes that cause us to laugh, but at the same time, he is a serious player,” David’s longtime teammate Gary Tsai (12) said. “When you practice with him or see him compete, you can tell he’s bringing his best and never gets lazy during his tennis strokes.”

David’s childhood friend Jerry Chen (12) has known David for 13 years. As a member of his advisory, Jerry is one of the 11 beneficiaries of David’s homemade advisory snacks.

“He loves to help other people, and that’s reflected in his passion for cooking,” Jerry said. “He can make everybody happy with his signature apple pie and chicken drumsticks.”