After-School Cooking Class Leads to Gourmet Dinner—and Life Lessons

By Emily Gaines Buchler

“I’m on fire to get children eating healthy,” says parent and chef Connie Johnson (pictured, far right), who volunteered this past year to teach an after-school cooking class to students at Calvin Rodwell Elementary/Middle School. The class ended with students cooking dinner—salmon with a sweet-and-sour sauce and chicken in sautéed peppers—for more than 140 parents and other adults. Held on Sat., June 26 in the banquet hall of Ames Memorial United Methodist Church, the evening consisted of dressed up adults talking quietly over jazz music, and students in kindergarten through 5th grade bustling behind the scenes to cook and serve “a dinner that most adults don’t know how to prepare,” says Johnson.

Along with entrées of salmon and chicken were steamed rice and mixed greens and herbs from Great Kids Farms, an organic farm owned and operated by Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools). As families dined on these delicacies, Ms. Johnson, students and special guests from City Schools spoke about the cooking class and skills learned this first year. Offered to elementary school students in Calvin Rodwell’s Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program, the cooking class exposed students to foods from Italy, France, Japan and China; taught them the art of using spices rather than salt to season food; trained them to handle food properly and to clean and sanitize the work area; and introduced them to the operations of a restaurant—from taking inventory to what it takes to be a manager and executive chef.

“We learned about non-traditional foods that children don’t typically eat,” explains 5th grader Esther Gbala, “and we sharpened our math skills by measuring and weighing ingredients—and our social studies knowledge by learning about other parts of the world.”

“We also learned to cook some delicious gourmet food,” adds another 5th grader, Deairra Parker, “such as salmon with shitake mushrooms and boneless chicken seasoned with thyme, oregano and basil.”

After dinner, Michael Thomas, the director of the Office of Learning to Work at City Schools, and Irma Johnson, the executive director of elementary and K-8 schools, spoke about the importance of involving children in enrichment programs like the cooking class.

“I’d like to thank you, parents, for allowing us to work with your students and allowing them to participate in something they don’t have to attend,” Thomas said. “I challenge you to keep their interest in cooking going.”

For parents in the audience, the cooking class inspired their children to venture out and try new foods—and get involved in the kitchen at home. “Correy talks about food all the time now,” says Lynette Neaves about her 2nd-grade son. “He’ll say he wants apples and oranges at the market instead of potato chips, and he’s always talking about the salt intake.”

For Ms. Johnson, who worked as a chef for the Baltimore-based restaurant Prime Rib and now operates a catering company that prepares healthy meals for child-care centers, the course “not only taught students culinary skills but also essential life skills. They learned focus and discipline—and that nutritious food can taste great, too.”

As the banquet ended, and students had a chance to eat what they spent hours cooking, they told stories and reflected on the evening and year. “The class was challenging,” says Deairra Parker. “Sometimes I wouldn’t get something, like how to slice a cucumber. Mine turned out terrible the first time, but once I figured it out, it was easy.”

Deairra now cooks at home for her family. Breakfast is becoming her mainstay, but she's most proud of her dinner entrée: Maryland crab cakes.  

This summer, Chef Connie Johnson is offering a Saturday cooking class for children. For information, call 410-491-3595.