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| Cooking Italiano Group Lesson with Chef Eric |
People bond over a good meal, but more so when they prepare
it together. At a recent Cooking Italiano Group Lesson, which is a cooking lesson in the comfort of your own home, I had the pleasure
of seeing a group of kids form new friendships as they made a home cooked meal
for their moms.
The Cooking Lesson
A client had won an auctioned Cooking Italiano Group Lesson
/ Birthday Party Package for her 8-year-old daughter, but instead of waiting
for her birthday, she wanted to have a “cooking play date” for 7 kids in which
we would make enough food for them and their moms. The menu would include five favorite dishes
from my after-school classes: Handmade Fettuccine Pasta with a Homemade Marinara
Sauce, Green Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette, Garlic Bread and for dessert, Gelato
Sundaes.
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| Homemade Vanilla Gelato |
Who Doesn’t Love
Gelato?
Once the gelato was busy churning, we focused on making
fresh pasta. Using our “pasta tree” (otherwise
known as a pasta drying rack) and our pasta machines, we turned eggs and flour
into silky, smooth fettuccine. Kids love
to use the pasta machine because it’s very hands-on and fun to use the
machine’s hand-crank to make the pasta dough thinner and thinner until we can
send the dough through the fettuccine attachment.
Meanwhile, the moms seemed to be enjoying themselves as they
relaxed in the living room. One kid
asked, “Do you think they miss us?” As
the sounds of laughter echoed from the mom-filled room complete with champagne and
a platter of fruit, cheese and crackers, I responded with a grin, “I think
they’re doing just fine.”
Halfway through the lesson, we began chopping vegetables for
the salad using kid-friendly lettuce knives.
The girls enjoyed the chopping, as well as whisking and taste-testing
the balsamic vinaigrette.
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| Hand-cranking fresh pasta in our enrichment class with Chef Alix |
With the sauce simmering and the garlic bread in the oven, we
cooked the fresh pasta and prepared the dinner buffet. The girls were beaming with pride and the
mothers too as we enjoyed the pasta, salad and garlic bread. A few moms complimented me on the tenderness
of the fettuccine, while the kids were raving about the garlic bread.
After dinner, the kids bolted outside to play, but I
corralled them back in the kitchen with a simple question, “Who wants to make
gelato sundaes?” We then whipped up
homemade whipped cream and made a quick chocolate sauce. In an assembly line, we cranked out fourteen sundaes
with a scoop of vanilla and chocolate gelato topped with fudge, whipped cream
and strawberries that everyone enjoyed.
New Friendships
Formed
During the lesson it seemed to me that all the girls were
old friends. Later, however, I found out
that for a few of the girls, this was their first time spending time together
outside of school. My client enjoyed how
this “cooking play date” kept the kids happy and engaged as she had an
opportunity to bond with their moms. Leaving
the house that evening, I reflected how amazing it was to see my work result in
people coming together.
To learn more about our Cooking Italiano Group Lesson / Birthday
Party package. Click here
