Lunch Cooked by the Sun

In the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, it hardly ever rains, and the sun shines almost every single day. “All that sunshine,” said the science teacher, Profe Rocío, “and we hardly use it. This week, your challenge is to cook lunch using only the sun.”

Javiera and her best friend, Tomás, looked at each other. Cook without a stove? Without a fire? At home they collected a big cardboard box, kitchen foil, black paper, a sheet of clear plastic and lots of tape. Javiera’s mum lent them an old baking tray.

First, they lined the inside of the box with black paper. “Dark colours soak up heat,” Tomás said, remembering their lesson. Then they covered the lid flap with shiny foil and propped it open to bounce extra sunlight into the box. Finally, they stretched the clear plastic over the opening like a window, so the heat could get in but not easily escape.

Their first test was a disaster. They put a slice of bread with cheese inside, but they had set the oven in the shade of a wall by mistake. After an hour, the cheese was still cold. They moved the box into full sun and tilted the foil until it shone brightly inside. Twenty minutes later, the cheese was bubbling.

On Friday, the class held a sun-cooking fair in the schoolyard. There were melted-cheese sandwiches, warm apple slices with cinnamon and even a tray of soft cookies, all cooked by sunlight.

Profe Rocío took a bite of Javiera and Tomás’s toastie and closed her eyes. “Delicious,” she said. “And it didn’t cost a single drop of fuel.”

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