By Samantha Barry

Professional chef and restaurant owner Fernanda Tapia performed a cooking demonstration at Stetson West’s Xhibition Kitchen on Monday, preparing a dish inspired by her Chilean roots.

Tapia is the owner of Comedor, a restaurant located in Newton Center, which serves American-Chilean cuisine. Growing up in Chile, she was constantly surrounded by traditional Chilean food and flavors. While she holds the firm belief that traditional food is best made at home, she still incorporates flavors from her home country in every dish she makes.

For her demo, she prepared humita fritters, a take on a traditional tamale recipe. The fritters were deep-fried and served with smoked tomato, and a cherry tomato and corn salsa.

The event, hosted by Northeastern Dining Services, showcased Tapia’s talents in the kitchen and allowed her to share how she fell in love with cooking.

“When I was little, I would tell my parents I wanted to be a chef and they thought it was so cute and adorable and I would help my mom cook,” said Tapia. “Then when I was a teenager, Chile is changing now, but back in the day it was a really sexist country, so it was kind of expected of me as a woman to learn how to cook and I didn’t want to fit in a mold so I stopped really cooking until I got to college.”

She attended Boston University and went on to describe that once she moved into an off-campus apartment she realized she would need to learn to cook again if she wanted to eat good food. “I made a lot of terrible meals in my tiny apartment kitchen, but little by little I really began to fall in love with it,” Tapia said.

Tapia’s audience was a mix of food-loving students and faculty who got the chance to taste her finished product and ask questions while she worked.

Frequent Xhibition Kitchen event attendee Pankti Sanganee, a graduate student in the sustainable urban environments program, enjoyed the demonstrations and especially appreciated that it was a unique dish.

“I love cooking and trying out different cuisines, it’s like an experiment or a lab,” Sanganee said. “I come to these events often and love that they have little tricks and tips for cooking, which makes life really easy.”

Sanganee also noted that she loved how personable Tapia was and plans on visiting her restaurant this week. Tapia, who frequently does demonstrations like this, strives to create that personal connection with people both here and at her restaurant.

“A lot of times people will come up afterward and they’ll tell you something really fun or something they like to cook at home or ask questions and you get to know someone, they’re not just strangers in the audience,” Tapia said. “ One of the things I love about having a restaurant is that you meet a lot of people from different parts of life, and maybe if I just had a regular job I wouldn’t get to meet any of those people.”

The program is part of Northeastern’s experiential learning initiative, which encourages students to engage in learning experiences outside of the classroom.

“Everybody has to learn how to cook, it’s a life skill,” said Deb Fantasia, the marketing director for Dining Services.

“We like the idea of using food as an educator here on campus because it interlinks with all the different disciplines and it creates opportunities for engagement, collaboration, and co-creation,” added Maureen Timmons, director of Dining Services.

Timmons has visited Tapia’s restaurant in the past and could not stop praising it.

“It’s outstanding,” said Timmons. “The flavors are unique and she has such a wonderful layer of flavors and combinations. The staff is very knowledgeable and the food is exciting.”

Timmons also highlighted the fact that it is an open kitchen so guests can see their food being made.

Tapia’s advice for people who want to get into cooking, or college students working on a budget, is to never be afraid.

“A lot of times people panic for a variety of reasons,” she said. “Make do with what you have, buy a couple of things and stock your pantry with a few spices. The worst thing that can happen is that it’s bad and then you learn. Screwing things up has such a great value and so many people are terrified, but I say always be adventurous, especially with food.”

Xhibition Kitchen’s next event is Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 12 p.m. and will be a cupcake decorating demo and book signing with Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, authors of “Make it Easy, Cupcake!”