July, National Culinary Month: Five Discoveries In Culinary Camp
Johnson & Wales Instructors Don’t Tone It Down For Young Chefs
By Cara DeGette, GPHN Editor
In between juggling moussaka, dolmades, Greek salads and students, Chef Maggie O’Toole says Johnson & Wales University’s culinary camps are designed to help youth and teens decide whether a career in cuisine is in their future.
There is no difference in her approach to teaching – whether it is young students or adults. “We don’t tone it down,” she said. “This is a professional kitchen, with professional chefs. I’m a firm believer that there is no such thing as kids’ food and adults’ food.
“That said,” she joked, “it is so much easier to teach teenagers than adults.”
O’Toole’s weeklong culinary camp, designed to unlock some of the mysteries of European cuisine, is one of several held during the summer at Johnson & Wales, at the southeastern edge of Park Hill. After the university’s youth athletic camps proved exceedingly popular, the culinary camps were launched last year. In addition to courses focusing on kitchen basics and the ever-popular baking and pastry camps, this year, European and Asian camps were added.
On a June day, a Baking and Pastry camp hit midweek, and 16 students were whipping up a batch of challahs. It was their second go with challah in two days, due to the immense popularity of the braided rolls. Racks and racks worth of quiche pies were cooking in the oven.
Over the course of the week the students made pretzels, cookies, fruit tarts and French bread. Chef Steven Fling, a 2006 graduate from the Johnson & Wales Miami campus, led the group.
Stella Scheidt-Trulli, and Tatum Scheidt-Trulli, both 9, and Catherine Mooney, 10, spoke about their discoveries so far that week: 1: Making quiche and pretzels is actually pretty easy. 2. Learning to use the scale can be tricky. 3. There is much more math involved in cooking than they imagined. 4. That said, baking is not an exact science. You can be a little off with a measurement and the final product won’t be ruined. 5. Calimari is actually very good.
Braden Kushdilian, 11, reported his mom forced him to go to baking camp. That said, he admitted he was having a blast. “I don’t regret coming here, but I do regret being the only boy in the class,” he said.