By Renee Durham | OfficialKidsMag.com
Cooking is serious business for the Junior Chef Academy at The Jones Center. These kids are learning culinary skills from Executive Chef Brigham Cook from Cook’s Culinary Academy. Chef Cook and his wife team up to make kitchen learning delicious AND fun.
Official Kids Mag went to class for the Pasta Extravaganza – Toasted Ravioli and sauce, start to finish in 90 minutes. These awesome kids, who are between 6 and 15 years old, are learning to cook garden to table using fresh ingredients and all from scratch. When most kids are eating ravioli from a can or a bag of frozen pasta, Official Kids Mag learned some new tricks for rolling out hand-made dough and filling it from Chef Cook and his Junior Chefs.
Three different fillings were created and used to stuff the pasta: sausage, mushroom and ricotta cheese. There were some other ingredients added in to each, but they might be top-secret recipes, so we are not sharing here. After the Junior Chefs rolled out the dough, they cut it in squares, and learned how to properly stuff and seal them. The result was a gooey good time.
While all the flour was being thrown around in one side of The Jones Center Café kitchen, two other junior chefs were helping Miss Amanda put sauces together. They chopped up mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, celery, garlic and parsley. Oh, the parsley – Official Kids Mag learned another handy trick for cutting up parsley from one of the Junior Chefs.
Chef Cook manned the stove for boiling the ravioli, and then they cooled those homemade noodles in the freezer for a few moments. And here comes the twist! They dipped the ravioli in egg and panko breadcrumbs and fried it in oil. Then a generous covering of fresh Parmesan cheese, a dash of salt and some sauce finished the dish. All under the careful supervision and watchful eye of Chef Cook.
That’s right kids; start to finish in 90 minutes for a meal any of you could learn to make for your family.
While making all this great food, Chef Cook and Amanda teach the kids about the food, from picking the freshest produce to where pasta originated.
And if you see Chef Cook at the Jones Center, check with him on the pasta. Official Kids Mag learned about the origin of pasta during class too.
About Chef Cook:
Executive Chef Brigham Cook has over 15 years of professional cooking experience. He has classes at The Jones Center, Walton Fitness Center and hold private classes for groups.
Cook’s Culinary Academy mission is to educate, empower, and enrich the lives of children through healthy, fresh, homegrown cooking experiences. Chef Cook and his wife are inspiring healthy generations of kids in Northwest Arkansas.
Your adult can sign you up for cooking class by contacting Chef Brigham Cook at (407) 301-6828, or by visiting Cooks Culinary Academy on Facebook.
You can also get more information about the Culinary Academy at The Jones Center by calling (479) 756-8090, Extension 2167.
These kids are shaking things up in the kitchen! View more recipes and cooking tips here.