Culinary Arts
Junior Chef
Knife skills, kitchen safety, real recipes.
Students step into a working kitchen and learn the fundamentals that every chef relies on — proper knife grip, mise en place, cooking methods, and food safety — building real dishes from day one.
What students do
Every session is hands-on and project-based. Students collaborate with a vetted teaching artist, work through structured challenges, and leave with something they made — a model, a recording, a portfolio piece, a finished dish, or a performance.
Who it's for: First-time cooks and curious foodies who want kitchen confidence.
What's inside
- •Kitchen safety and sanitation (handwashing, cross-contamination, stove safety)
- •Knife skills: claw grip, dice, mince, julienne
- •Cooking methods: sauté, simmer, roast, bake
- •Reading and scaling a recipe
Session-by-session breakdown
Week 1
Kitchen Foundations
Tour the toolkit, knife grip practice, build a fruit salad.
Week 2
Stovetop Basics
Sauté seasonal vegetables and finish with herbs.
Week 3
Pasta Lab
Cook pasta to al dente and emulsify a pan sauce.
Week 4
Roasting
Sheet-pan roasted chicken or tofu with vegetables.
Week 5
Baking 101
Quick bread or muffins, exploring leavening.
Week 6
Chef's Showcase
Plan, prep, and plate a 2-course menu for families.
Outcomes students leave with
- ✓ Confident, safe use of a chef's knife
- ✓ Reads and follows a recipe independently
- ✓ Cooks 5+ go-to dishes from scratch
What you'll get
- • Curriculum scoped to your group size, grade, and season length
- • Vetted, trained, background-checked teaching artist
- • All materials and kits — no prep work for your staff
- • Attendance + engagement reporting, plus family-facing recap
- • Chef-grade kid knives
- • Cutting boards & prep bowls
- • Ingredients sourced weekly
- • Take-home recipe binder