I started my children cooking with me in the kitchen from a very young age. Even my three year old son can scramble eggs in a pinch. But being a self-taught cook, I’m not very confident in my culinary skills, so this year I decided to send my two girls (10 & 7) to cooking school. It seemed like a good idea considering that I live with some of the pickiest eaters on the planet — this way they’ll be able to cook what they like to eat and give me a break.
So armed with this epiphany I went to Google to find a school. I thought that is should be a simple 1-2-3 search. Boy was I wrong. After spending about 30 minutes trying to 1) find a school that teaches cooking for children and 2) find one that doesn’t require a two hour drive (the down side of living in a village!) I located Young Chef’s Academy down in Easton, PA.
The school is really great. The girl’s are enjoying their classes and I’m learning a lot as well. The first day we attended the girls learned to make a variety of pasta from scratch (that looked like a lot of fun!) and are now making couscous, mozzarella sticks, and a variety of squash dishes. While they girls are learning the basics in cooking and presentation, they are also given subtle lessons on math, geography, history and art.
I think the best part of it all is that we’re all learning how to make foods from scratch (always the healthiest way to eat). To date, they still don’t like everything that they’ve cooked, but I have high hopes that their palettes are being stimulated so that may be I can be more adventurous in my own culinary pursuits.
Here’s one of the recipes that they’ve done so far:
photo credit: WellspringCS
