Jr. Chef Day

Jr. Chef Day school-wide cooking events are an excellent way to bring food-based education into the elementary school setting. These events create excitement and enthusiasm in the school community, teach young people about where food comes from, and, in a natural way, encourage them to try new foods. Being connected to what we eat through food-based education, cooking and gardening programs, and eating together in a communal setting is integral to changing food preferences and attitudes towards food. This is a crucial step in interrupting the momentum of the over-processed convenience-based food system that has taken hold and contributed to larger health issues for young people and adults. Through simple acts of cooking and growing food we can begin to reclaim the health and well-being of our children and of ourselves.

During a Jr. Chef Day event, each and every child in the school plays a role in preparing a meal. Recipes that contain diverse, fresh, and seasonal ingredients, such as a Winter Harvest Soup or a Three-Bean Vegetable Chili, are selected. The original recipe is scaled to meet the population size of the school, from serving 8 to serving up to 800. Additionally, this calculation is usually used as a math lesson with 5th grade students.

On each campus, a temporary kitchen is created for the day and a team of parent volunteers is recruited to be a supportive part of the cooking experience. Each class is given a 15 to 20 minute period in the kitchen to perform one aspect of the needed production. To give an example of tasks, there may be first graders peeling carrots, fourth graders dicing summer squash, and kindergartners tearing kale, rosemary, and basil. The team of parent volunteers manage each table of Jr. Chef’s, while the chef or teacher leads the educational activity and oversees the actual cooking production of the larger recipe.

On day two of a Junior Chef event, this meal, created by the entire student body, is served. Pots full of a whole rainbow of ingredients are reheated for lunch, during which each and every student, faculty member, and parent has the chance to share the aromatic and flavorful dish together. Many return to the servers asking for seconds or thirds, and by the end of lunch the communally-made creation has been completely consumed by its creators.

Peeling carrots, slicing zucchinis, and chopping tomatoes is not exactly the same as following every step in the production of a recipe, but for our young chefs these acts provide an enormous amount of ownership over the final product. Just as watching lettuce grow from seed entices the grower to take a bite, so does seeing the bean that you shelled the day before show up in your lunch make you eager to try a taste. Each time, this event turns into the day that some students try eggplant or kale or another fresh vegetable for the first time; into the day that others realize that carrots, onions, and garlic are roots that grow beneath the soil; into the day that still others march home proudly to their parents, recipes in hand, determined to recreate for their families the delicious, energy-giving meal that they shared with their friends at school. It is for all of these reasons that Jr. Chef day is such a powerful event for everyone involved, and so complementary to the changes that are being made in school kitchens around the county.