Kids Can Cook classes feed students' minds as well as their bodies
"Desiree, you are toasting the spatula!" Carmen, a Roxbury middle school student, is scolding her fellow apprentice in the kitchen of Kids Can Cook. Moments later, executive chef Gail Arnold calls out, "Watch your finger. Watch your finger. Stop. Stop. Stop!" Eight students -- one boy and seven girls -- are standing around a large prep table, knives poised and eyes focused on Arnold. Today's lesson includes vegetable stir-fry with brown rice and shrimp.
When things are calm, Arnold says, "Let's take out our scallions." Raising his hand, Tarahn proclaims, "It's in the onion family. I hate onions!"
Founded in 1998 by Dan Mathieu and Donna Montgomery in the kitchen of Mathieu's catering company, Max Ultimate Food , the non profit Kids Can Cook has brought scallions, onions, and other icky foods to students all over the city. Over the course of almost nine years, 1 , 500 inner - city adolescents living below the poverty line have donned an apron and practiced culinary basics.
Currently operating under the umbrella of the Urban Culinary Foundation, Kids Can Cook offers four classes at the main Roxbury location. In addition, there are two classes at the Paraclete Center in South Boston, one in Dorchester, and summer offerings at Trinity Church in Copley Square. The goal of the program is three fold: to provide a challenging after-school experience in a safe environment, give students enough information about food so they can make healthy choices, and build a sense of community. Each junior cook prepares and takes home enough dishes for six to eight people, which, say the staff, encourages families to eat together and provides a solid meal for those who might not have time or money to prepare one.
With Mathieu and Montgomery now acting as board members, executive director Susan Doll is calling the shots. During her tenure, Doll has introduced many new faces to the KCC team, including Arnold, who began teaching full time last January. She also works closely with Dr. Stacey Bell of the Harvard School of Public Health to develop a sound nutritional base for selected recipes. Representative of greater nutritional emphasis, they have eliminated the once popular M&M machine (a nod to the founders' initials), which sent the wrong message to the children.
"Twenty one percent of kids served each year don't have enough to eat everyday ," says Doll. Many go without both breakfast and lunch. If they are consuming sufficient calories, she says, they are coming from the wrong food groups. Kids Can Cook knows this because each child is asked to complete a survey upon arriving at the classes. Results show that "48 percent of kids don't eat fruits and vegetables." To combat this, Doll and Arnold have removed white flour and simple carbohydrates from recipes. Universal favorite desserts such as pumpkin pie and gingerbread have been replaced with fruit-based recipes. And fried chicken -- a cherished dish -- is coated with corn flake breading and oven baked.
In the colorful kitchen, kids are marching to the sink with cutting boards and knives safely pointed toward the floor, amid a chorus of "behind you" -- the same way chefs warn one another that they shouldn't back up. Besides culinary skills, other important lessons sneak into the curriculum. "Half it, quarter it, half them, and cut each one into three pieces. Can anybody do the math? How many pieces am I getting out of it?" Arnold asks.
On this day, dessert prompts a geography tutorial when students discover that their pineapples came from Costa Rica. "I want kids to know where food comes from: that the fish sticks they get out of the freezer case was once a live being that swam in the sea," Arnold says.
Perhaps the brightest change in the program in recent years has been the physical space. Private donations amounting to $50,000 enabled the creation of a brand new kitchen. The young scholars no longer have to practice their skills in an often chaotic commissary kitchen. The six-burner stove, griddle, and two convection ovens are surrounded by bright yellow walls. Pink and blue paper lanterns hang from the ceiling over the table where eager learners meet each day for a nutritional snack. Gone are traditional white appliances -- red mixers sit alongside orange blenders.
The young cooks want to learn everything. "Do you know any nearby culinary schools?" asks Lena . "If I don't go to college, I might want to go to culinary school."
She would not be the first. Sharon Campbell was introduced to Kids Can Cook in sixth grade. In 2004, she received a scholarship from Les Dames d'Escoffier -- a philanthropic group that promotes women in the food and hospitality industries -- to pursue studies at Johnson and Wales University in Providence.
In the meantime, the demand for classes is on the rise. "Is there a level three?" asks Tarahn. Disappointed in Arnold's response, he says , "Can you make that happen?"
It looks like even eating onions won't keep these kids from the kitchen.
For information about Kids Can Cook, call 617-442-1122 or go to kidscancook.org. 