Lagasse’s Kitchen House opening soon
Program melds cooking, gardening lessons with school curriculum
It’s easy to see a watermelon as just a watermelon. For a student, however, the fruit can be the perfect way to learn about circumference.
Measuring ingredients for a cake makes fractions more understandable, while learning about the food eaten by soldiers in World War I brings that period to life for 21st century children.
Students throughout Central Florida will learn about those connections when the Emeril Lagasse Foundation Kitchen House & Culinary Garden opens this month in College Park.
Three years in the making, the facility will house a 3,500-square-foot commercial kitchen and a blooming garden perfect for school field trips, cooking classes for adults and families and
Sunday gardening for the community.
The Kitchen House will support the Edible Education Experience, a local nonprofit that melds cooking and gardening lessons with school curriculum. The program originated at Orlando Junior Academy, on Evans Street near the new, one-of-a-kind, $1.2 million facility.
“Any success we have will be completely dependent on many, many hands joining together,” said Brad Jones, the garden coordinator with Edible Education. “There’s no template for this.”
Jones was inspired to make Florida’s horticulture a part of his daughter’s education at the private Orlando Junior Academy in 2003. What started as a small garden plot soon integrated into the classroom — and added a culinary component as Jones enlisted the help of Kevin Fonzo, a local chef and owner of K Restaurant in College Park.
“All of a sudden you realize: ‘What can’t be connected to food or growing food?’ ” Jones said.
Work began on the Kitchen House in 2014. The Junior Academy donated the land, chef and TV personality Emeril Lagasse’s foundation contributed $250,000 and Florida Hospital for Children kicked in $450,000.
Since then, Fonzo and two other chef instructors have been tying cooking classes to the curriculum. The lessons cover everything from healthy grocery shopping techniques to reading a nutrition label.
“It’s not just about cooking,” Fonzo said of Edible Education’s lessons. “It’s a life-skills class.”
At the academy, students used butane burners and cast-off dishes from K Restaurant. The commercial-grade ovens in the Kitchen House make fresh-baked bread a possibility. Hand-washing and food prep sinks open sessions up to lessons on sanitation.
“We’ve always had to do [our lessons] with shortcuts and makeshifts,” Fonzo said. “Now we can teach the kids properly.”
Parents and visitors will be able to watch the classes from a second floor catwalk.
“It’s a beautiful facility,” said Janice Banks, executive director of Edible Education Experience.
The Kitchen House also is an eco-friendly building, with solar panels for nighttime lighting, an energy efficient air conditioner and a curtain wall with tinted windows. A metal roof was designed to funnel rainwater into cisterns, which will irrigate the garden.
The facility and its offerings will help change the culture of the Orlando community, Banks said.
“We think we’re going to have many pleasant experiences, important conversation and opportunities to inspire healthy change in our community,” Banks said.