She'll teach your kids to cook
NEWTON -- Mick Fitzgerald has only recently taken an interest in baking, but when his birthday came late last year, he hosted a cookie-baking party at his home. The guests arrived in party clothes -- Laila Skramstad sported a stylish striped sweater dress -- and were given personalized aprons to don. All present enjoyed pizza for lunch, sang ''Happy Birthday," ate cupcakes from a local bakery, and baked their own gingerbread cookies.
When the revelers left the Fitzgerald home that Saturday afternoon, they piled into cars with foil-wrapped souvenir sweets to enjoy on another day, or perhaps after waking from their afternoon nap.
Mick was celebrating his third birthday. Laila is already 3, and the remaining five apron-wearing bakers that day were between 2 and 4 years old. The hosts, Maureen and Craig Fitzgerald, hired Amy Dempster and her company, Cooking to Learn, to join them for the afternoon. After all, Mick helps make apple pie at home, and he seems to enjoy baking, so the lesson made perfect sense.
Dempster, 32, has been teaching cooking classes for kids ages 3 to 12 for two years. Though she's not professionally trained, Dempster has been cooking since she and her two siblings helped out in the family kitchen in Malden. Now she cooks at home with husband Brian and visiting nieces and nephews. When she takes her show on the road, she does home parties and classes at community recreation centers.
''Cooking is a great way to teach the kids so much," says Dempster, who earned an MBA from Babson College and worked in educational marketing. The Westford resident says that through exercises at the stove, you can also learn math, science, culture, and history. She tailors lessons to the age group, varying the style from classes that combine storybooks and a simple recipe to more complex activities. The recipes are modified as well. For Mick's party, Dempster used a gingerbread recipe without eggs so the curious kids could ''eat it as they go."
Dempster likes to limit groups of tots to six for her home classes and keeps it to eight in classes at community centers. Older students, between 6 and 12, might cook in a group of 10.
At the Fitzgerald house, there were seven children. The party started in a circle on the living room rug, where the teacher and partygoers sat cross-legged. Dempster wove her kitchen rules into the conversation, saying things like, ''Do you touch sharp things?"
Sarah Kern, at 4 the oldest in the group, proclaimed quickly, ''No, you would cut yourself."
Then they talked about tasting ingredients, and Dempster asked, ''What do you use to taste with?" Everyone stuck out a tongue.
Some chefs tried to wander off (Dempster gently requested that they return to the circle) and at least one brought finger to nostril. But the kids had become quiet so quickly that the parents watching took notice.
Then the petit bakers listened to a story about a gingerbread boy before heading into the dining room to prepare the cookie batter.
Those eager tongues came in handy when Dempster offered a nibble of each ingredient to the chefs. Though not everyone wanted to taste, those who did were rewarded with a dusting of flour or sugar on their outstretched tongues. A cinnamon stick made its way around the table for sniffing, and at least one young chef decided to lick it as well.
The kids all helped with mixing, and when the dough was ready, each crafted his or her gingerbread figure by hand, leading to a range of results. Mick's kid had three legs. Sarah made two figures, one ''Mommy" and the other ''Daddy." Luke Van Putten, Mick's 3-year-old cousin, used the colorful candy decorations for a neat row of buttons down the cookie person's torso and along one arm. His mother, Carolyn Van Putten, says he has practiced at home with a gingerbread-house kit.
Dempster seemed to take everything in stride. She knows the kids will use the decorations ''for noses, mouths, hair. I've seen everything," she says, which includes spiked-up hair to multi-limbed cookies more closely resembling octopi than people.
The point of the afternoon isn't to make perfect cookies, says the teacher. ''I'm not trying to teach the kids to be the next Emeril." She would rather teach them to appreciate what goes into making cookies. Most of the enthusiastic little chefs had cooked at home already, so nothing should be ruled out just yet.
A TV star may be among them.
Amy Dempster's Cooking to Learn offers home parties and community-based classes. Starting Feb. 28, she will teach a Tuesday series for 3- to 6-year-olds at the Chelmsford Community Center. Another class will be held Feb. 21-24 for kids in grades 1-4 at the Wellesley Recreation Department. Starting March 8, she will teach a Wednesday series for grades 1-4 at the Page After School Arts Program in West Newbury. Prices for home parties vary from $200 for a 60-minute class to $225 for 90 minutes; community classes vary according to age group and number of sessions (typically $80 to $180 per chef). For more information call 617-275-3014 or go to www.cookingtolearn.com.
