Once per year, I have the amazing opportunity to teach cooking classes at a middle school in Surrey for a week. I have long believed that children should be in the kitchen from an early age and learn not only everyday recipes but be educated on how our ingredients come to our tables and why it is important to make food from scratch. So, when I set out to put together my curriculum for this year, I determined that the kids would learn difficult recipes and that it would all be hands on.

Learning to knead dough for the French baguette

Among other recipes, they made a strawberry salad with raspberry vinaigrette, Caesar salad with homemade croutons and dressing (anchovies and all!), roasted carrot soup with basil pesto, French baguette and homemade apple pie. They created their own “cookbook” as the class went along and took responsibility for each individual recipe. It was so great to see each kid tasting and experimenting with ingredients they were unfamiliar with and learning how to make good food.

One of the kids in my class fell in love with anchovies of all things! He kept asking me to bring him more every time we had a class. He had never had a real Caesar salad before and he loved it.

Almost ready to lattice the pies

Finished Pie!

I look forward to this class every year because I love seeing the wonder and the discovery of cooking in someone’s eyes. They realize that this is something they like, they go home and ask Mom and Dad if they can make dinner tonight. They know, from an early age, the real food is better than anything else they have ever tasted.

Tags: real food, teaching