This summer, The Cabbage Patch hosted its first ever cooking summer camp. Each morning, participants in the Young Chef Day Camp prepared a meal for that day: and their cuisine, included dishes from Italy, China and India. Young Chef Day Camp allowed campers to make decisions, use problem solving skills and involve a lot of subjects. Reading, vocabulary, science, health, art and nutrition were all part of the cooking process, which made learning fun.
The camp kicked off with cooking breakfast food such as eggs and apple strudel muffins with Leslie Ellis. Throughout the week campers also took field trips to 610 Magnolia, The Comfy Cow and Schimpff’s Confectionary.
At 610 Magnolia, the children and youth enjoyed a day of fine dining. Edward Lee, Chef and owner, also winner on the Food Network’s Iron Chef and a fan favorite on Top Chef Texas, Season 9, gave the campers a tour of 610 Magnolia and then treated them to a three-course meal. “Their three-course meal included corn soup, chicken, green beans on top of potatoes and had chocolate mousse for dessert. He then kindly provided signed menus made especially for the Cabbage Patch campers,” said Elizabeth Smith, Recreation & Youth Development Specialist for The Cabbage Patch.
At the Comfy Cow on Frankfort Avenue campers got a tour, complimentary sundaes and had the opportunity to ask co-owner, Tim Koons-McGee questions.
At Schimpff’s Confectionary campers got a tour of their candy museum and got to see Red Hots and chocolate made.
On “Italian Day”, the menu prepared included meatballs, parmesan garlic bread and rainbow salads. The children made their own meatballs and cut the veggies for the salad with chef volunteer, Mary Wheatley of cookwithmary.com.
On “Chinese Day” the menu included a chicken dish, fried rice and almond cookies. In addition, on “Indian Day” campers learned about vegetarian and vegan cuisine and then cooked chickpea curry, mint chutney and a rice dish.
Campers finished up their week with a cake decorating lesson and made chicken nuggets from scratch. Young Chef Day Camp was hands-on and results oriented, so at the end of the week the campers whisked away with valuable skills in following directions, working with their peers and a sense of accomplishment.