Culinary Camp

For the last two weeks of Summer Day Camp, the LEADERS are learning all about careers in the culinary field. They spent the first four days of Culinary Camp in the kitchen, learning all about what it takes to become a chef first-hand from Chef Keith Brooks who kept them very busy. This week, the LEADERS are headed out into the culinary field and will see culinary careers in action as they visit Second Helpings, Gleaners Food Bank, and Whole Foods Market.

Read below to learn all about their kitchen adventures:

"On the first day, Chef Keith taught us all about working in a kitchen. We learned the rules of the kitchen--like when you walk behind someone you have to say "Behind You" so that nobody gets hurt. You really have to be careful about where you're walking. We learned the right way to carry knives and then learned the proper way to cut all kinds of fruits and vegetables. We had to cut everything just right--we julienned and chopped and diced. It was really neat! Everything has to be just right in order and has to look perfect! It was harder than I thought it would be!"

"On the second day, we were in smaller groups and Chef Keith taught us how to make and present salads. We used spinach (which is actually really yummy!) and nuts and cucumbers and peppers. I can't wait to make the salad again! Everything was so bright and colorful and pretty--it was awesome! We had extra salad left over so we were able to prepare salad plates and served the seniors in the senior dining room--they really liked it and were grateful.

We put roasted almonds on the salads and Chef Keith taught us about economizing. It's really expensive to buy the already seasoned and flavored roasted almonds. He taught us that it's a lot smarter to season and roast them yourself--you can save a lot of money that way--and it's more fun too!"

"On the third day we made chicken. You have to be really, really careful with chicken because it can make you really sick if you don't prepare it right. We learned about the right way to thaw chicken--you leave it in the fridge--NOT out on the counter and then we learned the different ways to cook it. First we sauteed the chicken and then we baked it. It was delicious."

"On the fourth day we made our own pasta with vegetables. It looked awesome and tasted really, really good too! We sauteed the vegetables and now we're really good at sauteeing! We also made our own trail mix and granola with roasted almonds, cashews, and peanuts. We learned so much and it was super cool!"