Kitchen Kid Signature Summer Camp

The best meal all day is one enjoyed at a café! This week our chefs will be cooking the wonderfully creative recipes from California cafes and French bakeries.  The week will be filled with fluffy sweets and delectable savories, such as berry muffins, red velvet cupcakes, fruit tarts with chantilly cream, fresh salads, paninis, homemade quiche, calzones, eclaires, gazpacho, banana breads, baguettes, cookies, and more!  It’s sure to be the most scrumptious week at Kitchen Kid yet! 

Have you ever imagined what it might be like to start and operate a restaurant? At Kitchen Kid’s full-day Restaurant Camp, budding chefs, entrepreneurs, artists, and young restaurant enthusiasts will launch their very own restaurant! Kitchen Kids are immersed in every step of the process: from picking a name, choosing the theme, designing the decor, writing the menu, learning etiquette, and creating, cooking, and serving the signature dish. At the beginning of the week chefs will tour the kitchen and front of house of the popular local restaurant: celebrity chef-owned Border Grill. Additionally, Kitchen Kids will cook their own unique lunch each day, and practice cooking their chosen signature dishes. On the last day of camp, parents are invited to “opening night” at their child’s new restaurant.

Sample Day One Schedule:

9:00 – 10:00 am

• Orientation Games
• What is a restaurant? White board brainstorm on restaurants, cuisine, names, décor, etc.

10:00 – 11:00 am

• What to serve? Previewing real menus
• Kitchen orientation and scavenger hunt
• Snack

11:00 – 2:00 pm

• Cook and eat lunch: Italian Restaurant Day
• Zucchini and basil risotto
• Homemade pizza with all the toppings
• Caprese pasta salad
• Chocolate tiramisu

2:00 – 3:00 pm

• Discussion on Italian food and culture and restaurant themes
• Prepare interview questions for next day’s restaurant tour
• Restaurateur notebooks and food collage
• Palate development: blind taste testing game 

Have you ever wanted to be on a food competition show? Here is your chance!  Team up with fellow foodies for Kitchen Kid’s special version of TV’s best food shows: Cupcake Wars, the Great Food Truck Race, Chopped, & Iron Chef Challenge.  Each day will feature a show’s tasty and fun competition as campers hone their culinary skills and activate their creative juices.  On the last day of camp we’ll select and cook favorite recipes of TV’s most popular celebrity chefs. Our taste buds are sure to be the winners all week long!

If you love dining out, this week’s for you! We’ll be cooking food from different types of restaurants and learning the language of an esteemed food writer.  Chefs will feast on Asian Take-Out (like homemade wonton soup, beef and broccoli stir fry, & coconut fried rice), delight in an All-American Diner, get gourmet with French Fine Dining, and go modern at a Small-Plates Tapas Bar with chicken and goat cheese quesadillas, mini corncakes with avocado salsa, bacon-wrapped dates, & mini meatballs with white bean hummus.   Chefs will discuss palate development, plating, and meal pairing. At the end of the week each chef will write a short food review of a meal they ate – and cooked – during the week. It’s sure to earn 5 stars! 

This week we’ll be making the most delicious, quintessential recipes for each meal of the day! That means we kick off Monday with a breakfast buffet of perfect pancakes, cinnamon buns, rosemary bacon, veggie strata, and fresh fruit smoothies.  On Tuesday we’ll design the ultimate lunchbox with fun sandwiches, soups, salads, and cookies.  Wednesday we head to the Farmers Market for our Iron Chef Challenge. Thursday we master essential appetizers, after-school snacks, and party foods, and on Friday expect to make the perfect family dinner: ulitmate macaroni and cheese, perfect roasted chicken, summer salad with citrus vinaigrette, and heavenly brownies.  This week’s mission is to give chefs the tools and skills they need to create delicious, healthy meals for their family any time of the day. Campers will have fun learning about palate development, culinary techniques, and how to follow their taste buds to put new twists on classics recipes.  

Reading has never tasted so good!  This summer come quench your tot chef’s thirst for culinary adventure and develop his or her appetite for nutritious nibbles with Books for Cooks!  Books reinforce academic and social skills, while recipes expand the culinary horizons of your tot-chef. In this fun class, we encourage kids to use all their senses to explore and experience new flavors and ingredients.  Kitchen safety and culinary basics are integrated in each lesson.  Healthy recipes may include Little Pea Tacos, I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato Salsa, Strega Nona’s Pesto Pasta, and Ferdinand’s Paella.  

Kitchen Kid’s new CIT program provides the opportunity for teens to develop leadership and culinary skills.  Ideal for high school students who love helping younger kids and being in the kitchen, this program promises to be fun and rewarding.  Special roles include assisting coaches with theTot Chef class, creating extra recipes throughout the week, and organizing the farmers market day.