Chefs in the making: Fourth-graders complete cooking class

Ethan Ross closes his eyes as he tastes freshly-made carrot juice at the Cooking Matters to Kids class today.

FARMINGTON - Bring on the onions, garlic and eggplant.

What may be surprising to some is that's the opinion of the Cascade Brook School fourth-grade students who made Ratatouille in a new culinary arts class held this semester. The six-week pilot program, Cooking Matters For Kids, is a cooking-based class with a heaping helping of nutrition thrown in.

Chef Bucky Leighton demonstrates his pizza-making technique to students.

Besides emphasizing healthy choices and teaching elementary age children kitchen skills normally taught in middle or high school, the program sponsored by ConAgr Foods Foundation and funded by Hannafords Corporation, sends students home with a bag of ingredients to prepare that day's specialty recipes for their families.

The program's team of Alyce Cavanaugh, the heath coordinator for RSU 9; Chef Bucky Leighton of Aramark at the University of Maine at Farmington and Laura Quynn of the UMaine Cooperative Extension, today completed the six, two-hour classes on Mondays with the students in Larry Loring's class at Mt. Blue Middle School's kitchen lab.

As Cavanaugh was blending up one smoothie after another packed with fruits and vegetables for the students to taste, Leighton was busy making a dressing for pizza of olive oil, garlic, basil, oregano, marjoram and anchovies. Yes, anchovies. Holding up the anchovy tin, the students erupted in a chorus of ehwww! "Ohhh! It's good," Leighton assured while smiling.

Among their favorite recipes made both in class and at home, students said they liked quesadillas, black bean and vegetable soup, apple crisp and, a big hit, turkey chili. Fourth graders following recipes, showing off their kitchen skills learned in class and serving up seriously good, nutritional food at home had some parents a little more than amazed.

Ethan Ross said his mom looked at one recipe he was about to make and asked, "Can you really do that?"

"Kids are capable of so much," Cavanaugh said.

Under an overhead mirror for demonstrating his technique, Leighton thinly coated the dressing mixture on the pizza dough then added tomato sauce, cheese ("I don't like to use too much," he told the students), fresh mushrooms, artichokes, onions and kalamata olives. Once his pizza went into the oven, students made their own little pizzas, selecting from a number of vegetables, cheeses and a sauce.

Cascade Brook School fourth-grade students Autumn Conklin, 11, at left, and Salina Stevens, 10, select their favorite toppings (mozzarella, tomato sauce, green pepper, mushrooms and onions) to go on their pizzas.

Jared Fontaine, 10, at left, and Sam Smith, 10, enjoy the pizza they made that included jalapenos, green pepper, onions and feta and mozzarella cheeses.

Once Leighton's pizza was ready to be served, most the students tried it and liked it - even with the anchovy dressing, which the chef said keeps the pizza moist. Then students got to eat their own creations.

"Eating healthy food young, that's so important," Leighton said.

Since it was the last class, each student went home with a course booklet, measuring spoons, a chef's hat and a certificate of completion. In addition, the course fulfilled the fourth-grade curriculum requirements. Cavanaugh, Leighton and Loring all plan to continue the class next fall.

At the final class ended, Alyce Cavanaugh awards a chef's hat to James Guillaume, 10, as Chef Bucky Leighton hands the certificate of completion to each student.