December 27, 2006

UrbanBaby Daily Best of 2006: 8/11/06

Kids in the Kitchen

When you grow up in the boonies, you know milk comes from a cow. When you’re born and bred in the Big Apple, you know it comes from the Dean & Deluca down the street. And dinner? That appears magically when the doorbell rings and a nice man on a bicycle hands you a bag and then waits patiently for your dad to find his wallet.

Which means you may have absolutely no idea what food really is. But just because mom and dad don’t have time to spend in the kitchen, why should it be off-limits to you?

Mini Chef NYC, in the West Village, is where little people become chefs.  Designed for three to seven year-olds, Mini Chef offers classes - and birthday parties and baby showers - where kids get to roll up their sleeves, roll out the dough and create their own gastronomic delights. All of the cooking classes are 90 minutes long, and the first hour is devoted to the actual preparation of the meal. During the last 30 minutes, while the food is cooking in the oven, kids are encouraged to create works of art such as colorful containers that can be used to transport their goodies home.

Favorite workshops include the Pizza Party, Razzle Dazzle Desserts and Homemade Jazzy Jams (that run-of-the-mill PB&J will now have homemade ingredients!).  In addition to making tasty treats, kids use all sorts of fine motor and math skills as they mix, measure and pour. 

Husband and wife team, Alyssa and Alex Volland, bring an interesting mix to their Mini Chef NYC classes.  With varied experiences behind them - he as a trained chef, she as a business executive - they started this business to focus on their love of food and their 6 month-old son, Jack.  All of the classes are available for single sessions or in packages of four or eight, and are taught at the Volland's Paradou Restaurant in the Meatpacking District.

A five-year-old who exclaims like Jacques Pepin or Julia Child over the joys of cooking? Heavens. After all, if grown-ups are busy bringing home the bacon, why shouldn’t kids learn the fun of frying it up in a pan?

MiniChefNYC at Paradou, 8 Little West 12th St., 212-727-2703, minichefnyc.com.