FAMILY OUTING
STUDIO JUNE STUDENTS RIO, 3, AND ROCCO PUDLO, 1, BAKE STRAWBERRY MEDALLIONS IN AN ONLINE CLASS.
Getting kids cooking during quarantine.
When the cooking class started, 2-year-old Charlotte Micek was logged in and ready.
With her iPad propped up next to the ingredients her mom had pre-measured, Charlotte watched as Sarah Moudry virtually demonstrated how to lift and mix ingredients so they could bake cookies together.
Moudry is the owner of Bellaire-based Studio June, a Montessori-style education facility that offers cooking classes and other kids education.
Her new virtual cooking classes are free and designed for children 6 and younger.
“Obviously, the best part of it is when it’s finished and she gets to eat,” says Charlotte’s mom, Yasmin Micek.
Micek is there to make sure flour isn’t unintentionally dumped on the floor and to control the oven but, otherwise, Charlotte is confident to play the role of chef, her mom says.
She stands on a kid-safe version of a stepladder to reach the kitchen counter, with her measuring spoons in the pocket of the tiny apron her grandmother recently sewed her.
Family members are “just in awe” of the recipes Charlotte has mastered through her virtual learning, Micek says, including banana bread.
Long before the city’s Stay Home, Work Safe order, Charlotte has helped prepare family meals, her mom says. Washing and slicing vegetables, which Charlotte does with a silicon knife for safety, means she’s more likely to eat the final product and to try new foods.
It’s all in the whisk
Moudry says she planned Studio June’s new cooking demos, which range from biscuits to casseroles, around items people likely already have in the pantry.
When parents register at thestudiojune.com, they receive a list of ingredients they can premeasure, so “their child’s setup looks pretty much like what’s in front of me.”
Cooking helps children become more independent, Moudry says, and is a way parents can “raise foodies.”
Virtual classes offer kids a way to be “connected during this time when things are chaotic without a schedule,” she says. “They’re finding it’s part of their routine.”
Soon she’ll add online classes in a paid format that cover more complicated recipes, such as Donuts With Dads, to “help parents to carve out that time together … for a meaningful, purposeful activity.”
Family meals, prepped together
Well Done Cooking Classes has moved its offerings from in-person to online. For its family-friendly classes that include macaron-making and cupcakebaking, there are two paid options (welldonecc.com).
In advance of the webinars, the Heights-based kitchen will deliver all the pre-measured ingredients that are needed. (The delivery is free within a 30-mile radius of the facility.)
Co-owner Darrell Morris says the new virtual classes allow families to “take time away from hearing the news, and hearing all the things they can’t do, and be able to have that shared experience in the home.”
In the upcoming Cupcake Kids classes for ages 6-10, students will learn to make varieties such as red velvet and pumpkin spice. The fee of $49 per student includes the delivered ingredients.
Raddish, a monthly cooking subscription for kids, has launched a new “Suddenly Homeschooling” cooking video series. Available for free on Facebook, the cook-along recipes include pizza dough and ranch dip (facebook.com/raddishkids).
And America’s Test Kitchen Kids, an authority for online cooking tutorials, has a new podcast called “Mystery Recipe” aimed at getting kids experimenting.