The snow is still flying but many families are looking ahead and planning summer vacations.  To help you with your family plans we have set the dates for Summer Culinary Camps, 2008 with Chef Barb.  The week long camps are just too good to miss.  We’ve got a new line up of classes that will have the young culinarians in the family creating fresh, seasonal meals using B.C.’s bumper crop of summer fruits and veggies.  From breakfast treats to after dinner sweets, we’ve got meal planning covered.  Daily camp menus will be posted in the spring.

The Kids Culinary Camps are action-packed, fun-filled days where the children have the opportunity to learn about the culinary arts through demonstrations and hands-on cooking in small groups.  The children will cook each day’s menu from scratch then sit down to enjoy a lunch they created.  Menus are designed to be age appropriate, incorporate a variety of culinary techniques and skills, to appeal to and develop younger palates and to help children discover the process and pleasure of cooking and sharing food together.  At the end of each day a recipe book is theirs to take and at the end of the camp, they will take home their apron so they can get busy in the kitchen.

Chef Barbara Finley has been teaching in the lower mainland for over 20 years, as an elementary teacher, instructor with the Faculty of Education at UBC and as a professional culinary and pastry instructor.  Barbara’s hope is that exposure to cooking and a variety of foods will encourage nutritious, diverse food choices that the children can create at home.

August 11 – 15  (Ages 7 – 11)

A five-day camp that celebrates the flavours of the season.  We’ll be creating new recipes from around the globe and some from our own backyard.  Fresh. Flavourful.  Fun.

August 18 – 22  (Ages 12 - 17)

A five-day camp developed with teenaged taste buds in mind that focuses on developing a variety of cooking techniques and skills using B.C.’s bounty of seasonal produce. From snacks to fine dining entrees, we’ll stretch your culinary repertoire.

Times:  10:00am - 2:00pm

Cost: $425 + GST per camp

Register:  call 604.876.7653. Payment is due at registration & can be made over the phone by Visa or MasterCard.

The summer camp cooking classes are sold as a package and not on an individual basis.  Registration fees are non-refundable.  If you are unable to attend, you may send another person in your place.  With two week’s notice, you may transfer to another class, based on availability, or receive a class credit.

As many of you know, NWCAV is proud to support the Terra Nova Schoolyard Society farm project in Richmond, BC (www.myterranova.ca). Terra Nova was founded & is headed by Chef Ian Lai, one of the Professional Culinary instructors at the Academy.

Chef Ian is pleased to announce that Terra Nova now has it’s own custom tea blend, provided by renowned tea merchants “T”. It is an enlivening blend of Organic Rooibos with citrus notes of orange & lemon. The price is $15 per tin (yields 50 cups). All proceeds go toward the Terra Nova Schoolyard Project. I have tried this tea, and like it so much I ordered 6 boxes for myself & to give as gifts!

If you would like to order some of this delicious tea for yourself, please contact Ian at info@myterrnova.ca or 604-767-9264, or call the Academy at 604.876.7653. Payment by cash only at time of pickup.

Enjoy,

Marla (tea aficionado)

Take 20 PhD academics, put them on an island with all the conveniences of a well-equipped modern home, with any ingredient at their disposal (but no cookbooks, no internet), and there’s a good chance they will starve to death.

Take 20 8-9 year olds, put them in a class with a brilliant culinary educator who is convinced these kids can learn anything, and within 90 minutes they’ll be cooking and eating a stirfry with broccoli, snowpeas, cauliflower, peppers, mushrooms, and tofu with skill and the enthusiasm , well, of 8-9 year olds.

That’s exactly what I witnessed when Chef Barb Finley, who has spearheaded Project Chef, invited me to talk at a class not long ago.  As soon as my speach was over, she did her demo using the same verbage and seriousness I use teaching adult classes, throwing them questions that would challenge most people but covered the previous three days, and every question was answered sharply.  The kids were soaking in everything, for Barb, being a professional educator, knows the absorption, unadultered and open-minded powers of kids that age. Within 90 minutes they chopped (yes, with knives), organized, communicated, and cooked a stirfry and devoured every single vegetable and piece of tofu on their plate.  There was no hiding, no deceiving.  In fact, Barb performed the exact opposite:  show, tell, educate, challenge, inspire, and take advantage of a child’s natural disposition to want to do things. 

If any parent could have experienced what I saw they would stop all the presses and demand this was happening in their school, in their home, in their kids’ lives.  I returned to my school to my classes quite humbled by what Chef Barb accomplished.  I was also humbled by the kids - especially their enthusiasm.  Read more about Project Chef  www.straight.com/article-116363/pilot-program-brings-cooking-classes-to-one-vancouver-school

Tony Minichiello, Culinary Instructor

p.s. This is the same Chef Barb who is doing the Kids & Teens summer camps at NWCAV this August!

I’m hearing a lot about this art of deceiving kids to eat healthy by hiding or coating the essence of healthy ingredients.  Dangerous strategy, I would say, for last time I checked decepetion is …well… deception.  I learned an old technique from my grandfather when I was 4 years old.  I lived with my grandparents for about a year, and my grandmother was a very eclectic cook with a repertoire of every organ meat, including brain and chicken feet, to various fishes like carp and eel, to rabbit, quails, live chickens, and every kind of vegetable and cooking green imaginable.  We had no choice but to eat what she made.  But my grandfather had a way to make me covet the foods brought to the table.  For instance, if I never had rabbit, I’d be eating chicken while he was having rabbit, but he’d enjoy his rabbit like it was nobody’s business, ignoring me all the time.  Naturally, I wanted some of that.

I remember one experience when he was enjoying my grandma’s braised eels with an old buddy of his.  They were, it appeared, in heaven, while I enjoyed my plate of pasta with tomato sauce.  The guest noticed my lust for what they were having and asked me if I wanted any.  My grandfather immediately interjected, emphasizing I was not ready yet for the eel experience.  He said I had not yet graduated to eel territory, and had to go through liver and rappini first.  Well, the next time my grandma made liver I was in there elbows high.  The eel, which I had to wait over a month to savour, was indeed everything I expected.

So I took this lesson to educate my kids to eat everything, and I mean everything, without ever once having to deceive or battle.  When they were still on the bottle, I plopped their baby seat at the dinner table and made sure they could see me eat and enjoy the foods I loved.  When, naturally, they wanted a part of the same experience, I made THEM battle for it, not the other way around.  My boys will try anything I like – tripe, octopus, sweetbreads, fiddleheads, snails, you name it.  I figured that if I have to deceive my children when it comes to food, they’ll never trust me down the road.  So what is needed is the opposite: education.  More on that in the next blog.

Tony Minichiello, Culinary Instructor   Â

The holiday season is just around the corner so it’s time to get busy in the kitchen with Chef Barb. The cooking classes are action-packed, fun-filled days where kids and teens have the opportunity to learn about the culinary arts through demonstrations and hands-on cooking in small groups. Menus are designed to be age appropriate, incorporate a variety of culinary skills and help children discover the process and pleasure of cooking and sharing food together. Food and kitchen safety is taught and emphasized at all times. At the end of each day a recipe book is theirs to take home so they can get busy in the kitchen.

Chef Barb Finley has been teaching in the lower mainland for over 20 years, as an elementary teacher, instructor with the Faculty of Education at UBC and as a culinary and pastry instructor.

If you’re looking to make some edible holiday gifts or a plate of sweets for the family, then join us for some festive fun. Chef Barb will give you a dose of seasonal spirit when we make rich, fudgey Chocolate Brownies, Raspberry Bird’s Nest Cookies and Chef Barb’s Mom’s Shortbread Cookies (the best there is). A yummy hot lunch and heavenly hot chocolate will be served to keep the young pastry chefs energized. Please bring a container to take home the festive fare.

To register please call 604.876.7653

Price: $80 + GST

Date/Time: December 16, 2007, 10:00am-2:00pm

Read the rest of this entry »

The holiday season is just around the corner so it’s time to get busy in the kitchen with Chef Barb. The cooking classes are action-packed, fun-filled days where kids and teens have the opportunity to learn about the culinary arts through demonstrations and hands-on cooking in small groups.  Menus are designed to be age appropriate, incorporate a variety of culinary skills and help children discover the process and pleasure of cooking and sharing food together. Food and kitchen safety is taught and emphasized at all times.  At the end of each day a recipe book is theirs to take home so they can get busy in the kitchen.

Chef Barb Finley has been teaching in the lower mainland for over 20 years, as an elementary teacher, instructor with the Faculty of Education at UBC and as a culinary and pastry instructor. 

If you’re looking to make some edible holiday gifts or a plate of sweets for the family, then join us for some festive fun.  Chef Barb will give you a dose of seasonal spirit when we make rich, fudgey Chocolate Brownies, Raspberry Bird’s Nest Cookies and Chef Barb’s Mom’s Shortbread Cookies (the best there is).  A yummy hot lunch and heavenly hot chocolate will be served to keep the young pastry chefs energized.  Please bring a container to take home the festive fare.

To register please call 604.876.7653

Price: $80 + GST

Date/Time: December 15, 2007, 10:00am-2:00pm Read the rest of this entry »

There are still a couple of spots left in this class - call now to register…

Chef Barbara Finley is back with a two-day camp for the young cooks that introduces them to basic culinary knowledge and skills, kitchen and food safety and tasty food using fresh, seasonal ingredients.

Read the rest of this entry »

A five-day camp developed with teenaged taste buds in mind that focuses on developing a variety of cooking techniques and skills using B.C.’s bounty of seasonal produce. From snacks to fine dining entrees, we’ll stretch your culinary repertoire.

Farm Fresh Lunch:
Fresh Corn Chowder
Apple-Sage Biscuits
Butter Lettuce Cups with Strawberry Vinaigrette
Blueberry-Lemon Loaf

Brava Italia:
Hand-made Stuffed Caramella Pasta with Herbs and Ricotta (pasta packets shaped like Tootsie Rolls!)
Panzanella Salad with Tomatoes and Italian Bread
Watermelon Gelato Read the rest of this entry »

Chef Barbara Finley proudly presents a five-day camp for your young culinarians, that celebrates the flavours of the season.  We’ll be creating new recipes from around the globe and some from our own backyard.  Fresh. Flavourful.  Fun.

Bountiful Breakfasts:
Fluffy Blueberry-Ricotta Pancakes with Fresh Blueberry Sauce
Good-for-you Granola with Fresh August Fruit and Mint Salad
Summer Smoothie
Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread

A Picnic Lunch:
Summery Spring Rolls with Carrot-Ginger Dunking Sauce
Butter Lettuce Cups with Strawberry Vinaigrette
Fruity Fondue with a Chocolate Ganache Duo: White and Milk Chocolate
Blueberry-Lemon Loaf

Read the rest of this entry »

Summer is just around the corner and that means it’s soon time for Culinary Camps with Chef Barb. We’ve got a new line up of classes that will have the young culinarians in the family creating fresh, seasonal meals using BC’s bumper crop of summer fruits and veggies. From breakfast treats to after dinner sweets, we’ve got meal planning covered.

The Kids Culinary Camps are action-packed, fun-filled days where the children have the opportunity to learn about the culinary arts through demonstrations and hands-on cooking in small groups. The children will cook each day’s menu from scratch then sit down to enjoy a lunch they created. . . click here for class descriptions