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When your kids are ready to graduate from Easy-Bake
ovens or “helping” with dinner by expertly
licking the bowl, turn them on to actual cooking with
the surprisingly large array of children’s culinary
classes the city has to offer. For toddlers up to teens,
they teach technique, broaden the palate, and give future
foodies the confidence to experiment with their own
creations. (Peanut butter and bacon, anyone?) So whether
your youngsters become head chefs or simply makers of
a mean pesto sauce, at least they’ll leave the
nest with more than your stash of takeout menus.
• Even the tiniest chefs can learn to mix and
measure at the Art Farm in the City (419 E. 91st
St.; 212-410-3117), where youngsters ages 6 months to
7 years get to play with resident critters—hamsters,
bunnies, garden turtles—before retreating to a
country kitchen to whip up graham crackers, cookies,
muffins, and pretzels. Call for class schedules and
fees.
• The Mixing Bowl (243 E. 82nd St.; 212-585-2433)
offers a range of classes for 21⁄2-to-9-year-olds
on a semester basis. Menus include everything from mini-quiches
to the ever-popular baked doughnuts with sprinkles.
“Our philosophy is learning through cooking,”
says owner Meredith Berman. “Kids learn math from
measuring, plus counting, nutrition, science, and cooperation
skills from taking turns preparing the food.”
Sessions are fourteen to sixteen weeks, and range from
$490 to $560.
• Kids with precocious palates will eat up the
offerings at New School Culinary Arts (127 W.
24th St.; 212-255-4141). “Sushi for Kids”
teaches 8-to-12-year-olds how to prepare cucumber rolls
and smoked-salmon sushi ($50 tuition fee, plus $20 for
materials). “Teens Cook Asian” passes on
the secret to tangy peanut dipping sauce and pot-sticker
dumplings, while “Teens Cook Italian” teaches
budding Batalis the red-sauce basics. (Both classes
are $85 for tuition plus $25 for materials.)
• The Institute of Culinary Education
(50 W. 23rd St.; 212-847-0770), formerly known as Peter
Kump, gets kids ages 8 to 12 to move beyond their Coco
Puffs with “Breakfast and Brunch Cooking.”
A class for 12-to-14-year-olds is aptly titled “Simple
Dinners to Wow Your Parents.” To wow them even
more, tweens and teens can sign up for three-day summer
cooking camps ($320–$350); each day is devoted
to a different cuisine, from French (steak-frites and
crème brûlée) to Tex-Mex (spicy chicken
quesadillas and flan).
• Kids can also work side by side with the pros
at several Manhattan restaurants. Salute!
(270 Madison Ave., at 39th St.; 212-213-3440) holds
“Camp Pizza” on the last Saturday
of every month for kids 5–12, accompanied by an
adult ($10 per kid). The
Minnow (442 9th St.; 718-832-5500) in Park Slope
currently offers a barbecue class featuring White Castle–style
hamburgers as well as an “Art of the Sandwich”
class for picnic-minded kids under 8 ($60 for one kid
and two parents). At Eleven
Madison Park (11 Madison Ave., at 24th St.;
212-889-0905), each class begins with an excursion—a
fish market for a session on seafood, the Union Square
Greenmarket for pie-and-tart class. Next up is “A
Day in the Life of the Tomato” on August 16, which
will cover all incarnations of heirlooms for salads,
soups, and sauces, followed by a “Grilling, Grinding
and Braising” class in early October; in December,
a chocolate-holiday-dessert demo begins at—where
else?—a chocolate shop ($175 for a kid and accompanying
adult). Sugar addicts should head to Aix
(2398 Broadway, at 88th St.; 212-874-7400), where “Candy
Camp” is taught by pastry chef Jehangir Mehta
the first Saturday of every month ($40 for child and
parent).
• If you’d prefer that your youngsters
learn at home, Jennifer Herman Clair of Home Cooking
(and formerly of Martha Stewart Living) gives cooking
house calls anywhere in Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Queens.
For each session, Clair suggests a three-course kid-friendly
menu. “We do a lot of mac-and-cheese and risotto.
Kids love risotto because they’re constantly stirring,”
she notes. Two-hour weekday lessons for ages12 and up
are $150 plus ingredients for two people; six or more
students are $300 (718-783-0048).
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