Creating Cooks of All Ages

When she was getting ready to graduate Cambridge School of Culinary Arts and answered an ad on Craigslist for a cooking instructor, Jo Horner had no idea that eventually she’d end up owning and operating one of the most successful cooking schools in the Boston area.

“Renee (Cavallo, the founder) noticed every time they did a cooking activity at Riverside (r, where Cavallo taught), the kids were so engaged. And her father-in-law, Peter, is an entrepreneur. She went to him and he said, ‘That (a kids’ cooking school) sounds like a good idea.’”

So Blumenthal and Cavallo researched other successful kids’ cooking schools and eventually came up with the idea of a series of kids’ cooking classes. With this model, they opened in January of 2004.  Horner took the helm of the business in 2008 and bought it outright from Cavallo and Blumenthal last year.

Today, Create a Cook has grown from offering a few classes for grade schoolers to maintaining a seven-day-a-week schedule aimed at all ages, from the pre-school set to adults on a date. Classes include everything from basic technique and knife skills to how to prepare sushi and ethnic cuisines like Thai and Chinese. But Create a Cook’s Italian classes are by far their most popular.

“Sam (Cowens, one of the instructors) was enamored with this recipe for fresh corn pesto with fresh pasta and wanted to teach it. We called it ‘Midsummer Night’s Feast,’ but got no nibbles, no one signing up. We changed it to an Italian title, ‘A Night in Rome,’ and it sold out right away.”

Create a Cook’s classes for kids remain a staple, though. Horner notes that they not only offer an opportunity for parents and children or teens to work together on a project but also provide a chance to build some important life skills they might not acquire otherwise.

“I had this one gentleman who had lived with his mother his whole life, never learned how to cook and his mother passed away. So he came in here and took a whole bunch of classes. He had no idea even how to crack an egg. There are people like that who really have a fear of it or have someone who fed them their whole lives. And they pick up those skills here.”

This is obvious in Heather Wish’s Tuesday afternoon class for 3- 5 year olds. Two little ladies arrive with their mothers and immediately go to the sink to follow the appropriate hand washing that is the precursor to any food preparation. The third member of the class and her mom arrive a little late, but since Wish has already started her Caramel Apple Crumble recipe for her she is able to dive right in.

The girls do everything on their own, with their mothers acting only as assistants. Dry ingredients are expertly measured and leveled; wet ingredients are added precisely and with the flair of a seasoned professional. When it comes time to crumble the topping (this recipe uses the unusual technique of baking the topping separate from the apples – “That makes it crunchier,” explains Wish), the girls do so carefully and methodically.

Their knife skills would put a Food Network star to shame. Even though they are using a special plastic knife less likely to cause harm if there’s an accident, it is obvious that the care that the young chefs take will avoid any mishaps. Their concentration and the uniformity of the pieces of apple they produce are impressive.

When the girls hop up on strategically placed stepstools to begin cooking their apples and caramel sauce, safety protocol is so ingrained that Wish doesn’t even really need to remind them that they must “hold the spoon and the handle” (though, of course, she does). As their dish takes shape and the girls move away from the stove to begin the second recipe they will be creating that day, smiles are wide and confidence is high.

Perhaps one of these three young chefs will move beyond the Create a Cook kitchen and bring her skills and passion to the wider culinary world. Horner is extremely proud of a former student, Christopher Smith-Mark, who began at the school at age nine and recently decided to enroll in Minuteman Tech’s well-respected culinary program.

Horner has more to be proud of at Create a Cook – their involvement with local charities. She is currently working on having the school host a “Drop in & Decorate” event near the holidays.

“We will make all of these rolled and formed cookies and invite people to come in and decorate. Then we’ll package them all up and donate them to a charity. I’m trying to figure out organizations in Newton that might want to accept the donation. It’ll be great!”