KidFresh: Cooking Classes for Kids

By JULIETTE ROSSANT It's never to early to gain customer loyalty. Chef have been offering cooking classes in their restaurant kitchens to create another revenue stream, encourage customers to eat new dishes, and practice for a TV appearance. It is part of the trend of bringing guests into the kitchen that began with the chef's table in the kitchen and ends with the guests doing the actual cooking (see Super Chef, pp. 194-196). Super chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, among others, have built careers around teaching cooking as much as selling food in a restaurant. Even if many restaurants do not cater to children, some offer cooking classes for kids. After all, if their parents haven't learned to cook, kids can learn to cook from hands-on classes (or they could pick up a great cookbook and start from the beginning.) The latest to join this trend is KidFresh, a New York City retail store that sells organic meals-to-go for children. It is opening its "Kidchen" with cooking classes – with no heat or knives – in its store. The kids are grouped according to age, starting with 3-4 year olds and up to 10, with no more than ten kids in a class. Under the direction of Cricket Azima, kids will make “fruititos” (fruit burritos), bread salad, and strawberry salsa to eat at the store or take home. She will also be teaching about nutrition, math, science and other cultures. These aren't the products the store sells, so it is smartly not undercutting itself. And kids do have a way of dragging their parents to places where they want to eat. Previous articles: Food Adventures for Kids Nora Sands: Nora's Dinners Food Adventures for Kids Mozart and Chefs: Start Young Jamie Oliver: School Lunch Back to School: Mollie Katzen's Salad People Annabel Karmel: First Meals Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, KidFresh --> back to Super Chef