Cooking School Parties for Kids

Source: Cheryl Tallman

Entertaining your children’s friends is never an easy task and coming up with an idea for a birthday party is often harder. Recently, Fresh Baby creator Cheryl Tallman’s son Spencer turned five and the event was celebrated with a cooking school extravaganza. For 2 ½ hours Cheryl and her husband transformed their home into "The Cooking School for Brilliant Kids." Here she shares just how she did it!

We started out doing a little research on the Internet and found a neat web site called www.kidsaprons.com. We ordered disposable chef hats and aprons, and picked up a few kid-sized cooking utensils to use in the take-home gift bags. We also planned the menu and developed a schedule for the party.

Before the children arrived, we covered a ping pong table with white paper, did some prep on the foods, and decorated the dining room table for the birthday luncheon with balloons and the Star Wars tablecloth and plates that Spencer picked out.

When each kid arrived, they were fitted with their chef hat and apron, and we took a digital photo. We printed out their names (i.e "Chef Spencer”) on plain paper, cut it out, and used clear packaging tape to stick their name on their apron and hat. While we were waiting for all the guests to arrive, the children were given stickers to decorate their chef hats. This gave them something to do and also gave them some time to get comfortable.

The party menu included French bread pizza, carrots sticks and green beans, and for dessert, ice cream and cupcakes. Our school started with a “group” experience of making ice cream. Each child took a turn pouring, measuring, or whisking, while the others watched attentively. We poured our ice cream in the machine and moved on to making lunch.

We spread the kids out around the table and started with the French bread pizza, each child took a piece of bread and “painted” it with pizza sauce, sprinkled cheese, added pepperoni, and placed their creation on a cookie sheet.

After the main course was prepared, we took a class photo, and it was time for a break while the master chef (me!) put everything in the oven. The kids all went into the living room for a game of “Pin The Mustache On The Chef", and a magic show put on by my husband Roger, who picked up some magic books at the library the week before. By the time entertainment was done, the kid’s masterpieces were ready to be served. In the dining room each child’s plate had a piece of pizza, and some carrot sticks and green beans. The kids were so excited about their accomplishments. They all happily and proudly ate their lunch.

After lunch, it was back to cooking school for cupcake decorating. We had colored icing bags (tied at the top) and an assortment of sprinkles. This was the BEST event of all, the kids had great time. The creativity of a five year old is absolutely precious. After about 20 minutes, it was back to the dining room, were we sang “Happy Birthday”, and gobbled up our cupcakes and homemade ice cream. After that, we opened gifts and gave out the take-home gift bags. Two and half hours seemed to fly by.

Spencer’s thank you notes were sent with a certificate (printed on our home computer) from “The Cooking School for Brilliant Kids”, and it included the child’s picture and the class photo.

We learned that a cooking party is a great theme to entertain kids, keep them engaged, and to teach then some new skills. This party was quite affordable too—about $100 total. It just required some upfront planning, a little research and some creativity to make it fun!

If you are thinking of having your own cooking extravaganza, here are few tips that you might find useful:

• Keep the recipes simple and have the steps written down to follow.
• Do food prep in advance, so kids are not waiting, and you can avoid the use of knives, graters and other dangerous utensils.
• Make the experience hands-on, a combination of group recipes and individual ones worked well to keep kids focused.
• Have an adult work the oven or stove and keep the kids away from them.
• Use a big table for your workspace (the ping pong table was perfect) and line it with paper (or plastic table cloth) for easy clean up.
• At $2/kid the chef hats and aprons were totally worth it—not one kid took them off during the party. We heard one girl wore her hat all day!

Cheryl Tallman and Joan Ahlers are
sisters, the mothers of five children and founders of Fresh Baby. Visit
them at www.freshbaby.com and subscribe to their Fresh Ideas
newsletter. Fresh Baby Baby Food Kits and other products are available
at many fine specialty stores and national chains including Target,
Wild Oats, and Whole Foods Markets.