When Lucas started university in another country, he could not cook at all. For the first few weeks he bought fast food every day. It was easy, but it was expensive, and after a while he started to feel tired all the time.
One evening his neighbour, an older woman called Mrs Ortiz, saw him carrying another bag of burgers. She laughed and invited him to her kitchen. "I will teach you three simple meals," she said. "After that, you can teach yourself."
She showed him how to make vegetable soup, fried rice with egg, and pasta with tomato sauce. None of them took more than thirty minutes. Lucas wrote the steps in his phone and practised at home.
Two months later, Lucas cooks most of his meals. He spends half as much money on food as before, and he has more energy. Now he sometimes invites his classmates for dinner, and they ask him for his recipes.