MacDill youths cook up fun

  • Published
  • By Nick Stubbs
  • Thunderbolt Editor
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  "Baked ham with a spiced peach glaze, roasted sweet potatoes, green beans and vanilla ice cream with peaches," read the menu.

The tasty delights were not the offerings of a restaurant, but a meal prepared by the children of the MacDill Youth Center, under the tutelage of a chef-instructor flown in from San Francisco last week to conduct the first-ever cooking school for the children.

The youth center, which features a small kitchen, has held cooking events in the past, but not a comprehensive class such as the two-day course conducted by California-based Culinary Health Education for Kids. The founder of the youth culinary training company known as ChefK, Laurie Zerga, led the classes, held Aug. 2 and 3 at the youth center. The first day, students learned all the basics of safely handling and preparing food, cooking and serving, and repeated on the second day with a meal served to parents to show off their new culinary chops.

"It seemed like it would be fun," said Ashley Hill, 12, and daughter of Allison and Senior Master Sgt. Rick Hill. "I knew a little, but this (the class) seemed like a good way to learn a little more."

Hill's sister Allison, 15, agreed, enrolling in the class to cook alongside her baby sister.

Tessa Merz, 14, wasn't as enthusiastic at first, having been enrolled in the class by her mother.

"I didn't cook very often," she said, but added that, "I probably will now that I'm learning more."

Zerga said her company is founded on the idea of "scratch cooking and healthy cooking."

"The kids love it," she said. "They watch the cooking shows on TV and this is a way to process what they've seen in a safe environment."

Gwendolyn Lawson, a youth programs assistant at the youth center, served as sous chef to Zerga. She's led a couple of past events in which the children learned cooking skills, including a barbecue, stir-fry and cake-baking day. The ChefK event was so well received it may be repeated in the future, said Lawson.

"We always have summer activities, but this seems to be a really good one, she said.

Then who could disagree that hands-on summer activities that culminate in good eats are anything but a winning recipe -- in anyone's cookbook?