By Chef Shai Mandel, Founder of Rooks to Cooks
How do you keep kids entertained and active all summer long? There are so many great summer camp options and it can be difficult to decide which one(s) your child(ren) will enjoy! Spice up your kids' summer plans by getting them into the kitchen to learn some valuable cooking skills.
Rooks to Cooks knows that children learn many important life skills through cooking. As the GTA's premiere culinary school for kids, they bring real chefs into the mix to ensure your little ones learn from the best in the biz! Their team of chefs and support staff bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the summer camps, allowing your child to learn from industry professionals who are passionate about teaching and inspiring the next generation of chefs. With their guidance and expertise, your child will develop culinary skills, creativity, confidence and great memories that will last a lifetime.
Check out the TOP 5 reasons to attend Rooks to Cooks Cooking Camp this summer:
1. Children Learn Lifelong Skills. There is no better activity than cooking to teach children an extensive range of skills. There’s the more obvious competencies, such as hands-on cooking and life skills, to the more ambiguous soft skills, such as patience, confidence and independence. Campers will be exposed to many different cooking techniques and lots of new recipes to try at home with their families.
2. Develop Social Skills and Have Fun with Peers: Let us not forget that cooking is a social activity; working together to execute a common goal is an amazing way to teach children how to cooperate and interact with others. Campers work in pairs to ensure each and every student gets hands-on practice and has fun in the process! Children love getting their hands dirty in the kitchen, whether helping with meal preparation, recipe execution or clean up.
3. Try New Foods and Learn about Healthy Eating. Cooking camps emphasize themes of healthy eating and teach students to cook easy, delicious meals from scratch. Parents might also find that children are more interested in trying new cuisines if they have worked through the recipe and cooked their meal! At Rooks to Cooks camps, children cook their own lunches everyday; plus they take home samples for their family to try.
4. Learn Kitchen Safety and get Comfortable in the Kitchen. Using highly effective cooking techniques, Rooks to Cooks is dedicated to teaching campers how to safely navigate the kitchen. All lessons begin with a safety explanation followed by a chef demonstration to show children the correct method to use kitchen tools or appliances and work through the recipes. Chefs and staff circulate throughout the kitchen to supervise the children during the hands-on portion of the camp. They assess each child to determine their readiness for the cooking skills and will help them reach their individual goals at their own speed.
5. Reinforce School Curriculum. When we think about a recipe … we Measure the ingredients, Stir them together, then Roll out the dough. These three cooking tasks alone can help your child with math, cognitive and motor skills! Children will also learn new vocabulary and cooking terms as they read through a recipe. And, finally, there is the science behind cooking. There’s loads of chemistry involved in how different ingredients react to one another (for example, how do we make a bread dough rise?).
At Rooks to Cooks Camps, your little ones will learn cooking skills, but they will also learn about team-work, responsibility, independence, nutrition, problem solving, and apply math and science in the real world. Imagine the value of these life skills to your child - all while expanding their palates, getting creative and having FUN!
Check out Rooks to Cooks Summer Cooking camps running July 2 - August 20, 2024 at 12 GTA Locations, including Richmond Hill, Markham and Thornhill. Visit the website to find a location near you and be sure to Register soon to secure your spot:
https://rookstocooks.ca/pages/summer-cooking-camp
