There are so many Rogier stories I would like to share--and I look forward to reading stories from his friends all over the world. But I thought I would start by sharing how I first came to know Rogier--which was through his love of cooking.

During the Summer 2008 Critical Theory Program at Cornell I happened to be rooming next to Rogier in the dorms. We had flown in on the same tiny flight from Philidelphia to Ithica and first met while sitting around in the dorm courtyard waiting for someone to show up with keys to the rooms. But how I first got to know Rogier was when he started talking about wanting to make a peppersteak filet with basil and balsamic reduction--or something like that. Now here we were in the middle of this intense theory camp with everyone concerned about keeping up with the reading and in a hyper-studious mode and Rogier decided to start cooking elaborate meals and inviting people to join in. It was one of the best parts of the entire experience and really humanized this sterile academic process.

One night, as pictured here he came up with an amazing lentil soup. He insisted that our friend Eric drive him to Walmart to by a handblender because you just could not get the right consistency for the soup without it! He also made some South African butternut and continued to tell us how his step-mother would be so proud of how the butternut came out!

One evening in the dorms at 2am Rogier insisted on making shortbread: fresh homemade shortbread cookies at 2am in the dorms! I think I knew that night that we would be friends forever because Rogier was like no one I had ever met. There were many other meals that summer and many great times we shared swimming in the gorges in Ithica, going across the street for our favorite "Rockett 88" drinks, and surviving all the geust lectures and receptions together, but Rogier's cooking and dinners in the dorms were really a special occation that I will always remember fondly.