Teens Cooking Camp---Do It Yourself---With Tips from a Pro!

By junior high, most teens have taken all the camps that have ever interested them. Anything really exciting at this point can cost hundreds of dollars a week. What if you could create a camp that paid for itself a hundredfold over time?

Most teen-agers enjoy creative projects. A camp that enhances their creative skills while teaching them valuable life lessons that are good for your health and good for your bank account is a win-win for everyone.

Here’s how to make your cooking camp a success:

• Even teens need supervision. Hire a student from a local culinary program, get grandma to share her wisdom, or have five families with five teens each be responsible for one day of the week.
• Assemble a little collection of tried-and-true recipes kids love that only take 20-30 minutes to make on average
• Make sure they learn proper knife skills up front, then practice those skills a lot using the buddy system, much like you would have someone spot you while weight training
• Let them taste a lot as they go, learning to measure according to taste
• “Labor intensive” vegetarian recipes with lots of repetition allow for more time to socialize; teens love this part

Preparing and enjoying a meal together is part of "the joy of cooking." I once asked my grade school cooking class why is it adults don’t like to cook. One of the older boys replied, “because they aren’t good at it!” A short time later, a third grade girl who had been thinking about this said, “You know, if they learned when they were kids, like us, they would be good at it!”