Kids in the Kitchen: Recipe for Fun & Food
By Amy Landsman
April 2006
For some kids, the butterfly is something you do in a pool. But as any Emeril-obsessed young foodie can tell you, it’s also something you do in a kitchen. To a chicken.
If you have a young chef on your hands, you don’t have to wait years to enroll him or her in culinary college. You can sign him up right now for some kid-friendly cooking classes or even culinary camp. And he can start learning to sauté like a super chef, long before he’s old enough to sample the sherry.
Some classes run on a regular schedule. Others take place occasionally. While the local chefs are highly enthusiastic about teaching, remember that this is generally a side-business for them, so they may only hold kid sessions every once in a while. Call or check their websites for updates.
…Chef Diane Bukatman, owner of For the Love of Food, also holds classes for kids. Her classes take place in Reisterstown.
“I think they’re so into watching the Food Network that they go into the kitchen to experiment. The skill level is way beyond what I would have expected for the average 11- or 12- year-old,” Bukatman notes, adding that cooking classes can introduce kids to a whole world of fresh ideas.
“We made vichyssoise with a bunch of 11-year olds. And they were like, ‘Oh, I never heard of this,’ and ‘I don’t know what a leek is.’ And they all loved it,” she says.
Chef Bukatman also runs Kids Cook! Summer Camp for kids 11 and older during 5- one week long sessions. “We went through baking; we worked with yeast. [The children] learned how to butterfly chicken breasts, how to sauté, how to roast. I think the most exciting thing for them was the last class – we invited the parents to come for kind of a graduation dinner… [The kids] got to plan the menu… We did appetizers, entrees. We made homemade ice cream. We did all these cool things,” describes Bukatman.
And, as you might expect, the parents were impressed. “The parents were saying, ‘Wow, my kid did this?! I can’t get him to clean up his cereal bowl! He made this meal!?” Bukatman laughs.
In addition to teaching kids to cook cool stuff, the chefs say they stress proper knife technique and kitchen safety.
“I always tell them, ‘We have lots of Band-aids, but not enough to put a finger back on,” Bukatman quips. 
In addition to the regular group classes, Bukatman holds birthday party cooking classes. “We made homemade Pizza,” she says of one party class. “We made the pizza dough, we made the sauce, and I brought in a whole slew of toppings… While the dough was rising, we made cupcakes and then we made butter cream [frosting] in all different colors. It really was a very fun class...”
Chefs Myles and Bukatman both say that one of the best things about kids’ classes is seeing the youngsters taste and enjoy healthy foods they might not have tried on their own. And the chefs relish opening kids’ eyes to the world beyond the microwave…
And an interesting thing her is that some kids are eager to explore the kitchen – even if Mom and Dad are steering clear. Bukatman says that half the parents she meets confess they can’t boil water. “Sometimes, the kids just get the bug,” she adds.
So watch out Emeril, a whole new generation of young chefs is getting set to put a little bam! In future kitchens of their own.
For more information on Kids Cook! Cooking Classes Click Here
