Youths try their hand in kitchen at class

Kids like spaghetti. They also like pizza, enchiladas, lasagna and chicken pot pies.

When they learn how to cook their own meals, kids are more likely to want to eat it and have fun while they do it.

They might also turn the tables on their parents and start cooking for them.

Some chefs of tomorrow gathered at the Corbin Art Center, 507 W. Seventh Ave., Friday to learn to make a kid favorite, spaghetti.

The class is part of a series offered by Spokane Parks and Recreation, “The Art of Fine Living –Youth Cooking for Teens and Preteens.”

For $19, children ages 9 to 13 may learn how to cook their favorite meals from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Fridays until March 2.

You don’t have to know how to cook to take the classes, but many of the kids already had learned to make food on their own at home.

“I like to cook a lot,” said Calvin Crooks, a fourth-grader at Moran Prairie Elementary School. “I tend to cook breakfast.”

Morgan Fisher and Ashleigh Varga, friends who attend the fifth grade at Mullan Road Elementary School, said that they once made a cream cheese frosting.

“I made spaghetti, and I made stew the other day,” said Sophie Schwab, a fourth-grader at Westview Elementary School.

After their parents dropped them off at the art center, the kids were shy and quiet at first. The eight children made fast friends with each other as soon as the class started.

Brittany Leland, the instructor, began the class by explaining the rules and food safety.

“We want you guys to be good cooks, and you don’t want to make anyone sick,” she told them.

The first thing all good cooks need to do is take off any rings, bracelets or watches and wash their hands for 20 seconds, all the way up to their wrists. For the class, they wore rubber gloves.

They then learned that all work surfaces and dishes must be clean as well. Leland taught the kids about cross-contamination. She told them that if they put a piece of raw chicken on their cutting boards, they are going to have to wash the board before they use it to cut up a tomato.

She warned the students to get an adult if they cut or burn themselves, know where the fire extinguisher is kept and to make sure that they always turn the stove or oven off when they are finished cooking. They need to be careful with knives, and they need to turn the handles of pots and pans to the side so that they don’t run into them and knock the hot food to the floor and onto themselves.

Once the rules were taken care of, the fun began.

The kids chopped an onion by sticking a fork in it and using the tines to guide their knives. “Your eyes get watery,” said Kyra Clossin, a fourth-grader at Hamblen Elementary School.

“I’m used to it,” said Hana Brothers, a seventh-grader at West Valley City School who has done some cooking at home. “They don’t get watery.”

They learned how to smash garlic cloves with the side of a knife blade to get them out of their papery skin.

Since they were cooking spaghetti with garlic bread, everyone got a chance to smash garlic.

Leland heated up the burners of the stove and made sure all the students knew how many and which ones were going to get hot. Once the ground beef was browned and the onions and garlic were added, the kids got to toss in the ingredients for the rest of the sauce – water, tomato paste, sugar and spices.

“It’s not science,” Leland told the class when they added the spices. “Don’t worry if it’s not perfect.”

The students had a great time learning about making spaghetti, but the garlic bread taught the kids a valuable lesson.

Sometimes you burn the bread.

When the kids finished preparing their culinary masterpiece, they all sat down around the table in the dining room to enjoy their meal.

Leland talked about presentation while everyone was getting served. Since you eat with your eyes first, you want to make it looks pretty.

But this was pasta, so the kids got to arrange their noodles on their plates into shapes.

“I made a yellow balloon,” said Jay Zaranski, a fourth-grader from Moran Prairie.

With her mouth full, Madison Thames, a fourth-grader at Westview, gave the meal a thumbs-up.

At the end of the class, each of the students received a copy of the recipe to take home, along with any leftovers, if there were any.