Culinary Kids Kicks Off This Presidents’ Day!
Posted in Programs and Events on February 13 2014, by Lansing Moore
Start building up an appetite now, because the Culinary Kids Food Festival begins next Monday! Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden staff and the Growing Chefs culinary team will come together as part of the Garden’s Edible Academy initiative to put on this family friendly food festival.
There will be daily cooking demonstrations at 1 p.m., highlighting kid-friendly recipes and offering delicious samples. The rest of the day, the Dining Pavilion behind the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory plays host to several Activity Stations, where kids can grab a Festival passport and embark on a cultural and scientific tour of their favorite foods.
At the Cheesemonger’s Shop, lessons on making cheese go hand in hand with the science behind the plants that cheese-producing animals love, as well as the bacterial processes involved in cheese-making itself. Kids can test acids and bases at the Tip-Top Pickle Shop, while learning the science of food preservation in the chemistry kitchen. There’s a wealth of chemistry and biology behind our favorite deli fare!
The story of spices spans the globe, and kids will get a passport and recipe at the Spice Adventures activity stop where they can mark their spice map and learn the origins behind their favorite flavors. Elsewhere, visitors grind their own flour to bring home for baking, right after learning about the myriad types of grains that go into our favorite breads. Kids can even fold their own seed envelopes, bringing home basil seeds to sprout and incorporate into their own favorite recipes.
Equal parts cooking workshop and botany seminar, the Culinary Kids Food Festival will get children excited about what ends up on the dinner table. The first step towards raising a healthier generation is cultivating enthusiasm and curiosity about where food comes from, and you need only look as far as our Conservatory Dining Pavilion to get that excitement started. It all takes place February 17 – 23, right here at the Garden, so don’t miss out!
