Talbot YMCA Creates Iron Chef Cooking Experience for Area Youth

Pictured left to right are Lyndy Mothershead of Easton and Grace Stefano of Easton, preparing canapés at the recent YMCA Iron Chef Camp hosted at Super Suppers in Easton. This unique camp experience introduced youth, ages 11 to 14, to basic cooking skills and making their own culinary concoctions.

What’s the difference between a crudité and canapé? Youth participating in the YMCA of Talbot County’s Iron Chef Summer Camp this summer learned the answer to that and other culinary trivia. Through a unique partnership between the YMCA and Super Suppers in Easton, area youth were introduced to basic cooking skills and making their own culinary concoctions at this unique summer camp experience. Each day, youth traveled to Super Suppers location to learn about food safety, utensils and measurements, and creative food presentations, while making a variety of dishes from all over the world. Recipes ranged from an Asian vinaigrette to an African cous cous salad to empanadas. As participants cooked and ate their meals each day, they had their food passport stamped for each country that they learned about.

In addition to having fun, a goal of the summer cooking camp was to introduce youth, ages 11 to 14, with useful information about nutrition and healthy eating. Robbie Gill, CEO of the YMCA of Talbot County, commented, “We are concerned about youth obesity and the challenges kids face today around eating. We wanted to show youth that cooking at home can be fun and nutritious. It also can involve creativity and promote family time, which is so important in today’s hurried world.”

Nancy and Jack Van Dijk, owners of Super Suppers share Gill’s concern about childhood obesity and were excited to meet the challenge by incorporating the camp into their offerings at Super Suppers. Nancy Van Dijk commented, “I used to teach school and was involved in 4-H and have always enjoyed having kids in the kitchen. Through camps like the Iron Chef Camp with the YMCA, I can introduce the food pyramid to kids and hopefully help educate them on nutrition and healthy meal preparation.”

On the first day of the camp, Van Dijk and her staff introduced participants to some of the basics of the kitchen, including cooking terms related to appetizers and how to serve appetizers. Staff explained that canapés are appetizers made with a base, such as slice of bread, topped with a garnish, such as cheese or a vegetable. Crudités were described as appetizers made from raw vegetables, such as carrot sticks and celery sticks. Super Supper staff member, Catherine Barron, who shared her tips on food presentation, commented, “We not only eat with our mouths, we eat with our eyes and our noses.”

As the youth created their own canapés and crudités, RJ Ritter of Ridgely, commented, “I’ve always like to cook and watch the cooking shows on television. My mom always says I take too long to make the food, but I like the presentation part the best.”

After eating their concoctions, most of the youth agreed that they enjoyed trying new things at the YMCA’s Iron Chef Camp, sampling foods they may never have tried before and learning that preparing healthy foods can be fun.

Super Suppers will work with the YMCA this fall through their soccer program, to offer parents the option to purchase an oven-ready meal to take home after soccer practice. Gill comments, “We hope by simplifying the dinner hour, we can offer families a healthy dinner meal, while at the same time giving families an activity we create that they can do together around family values. It’s one more way to promote family time as the back-to- school routines begin.”

For further information about the YMCA’s fall soccer/dinner program, call them at 410-822-0566 or visit www.talbotymca.org.