Get kids cooking in the kitchen with kids’ class

Pampered Chef consultant Jaime Bartell enjoys teaching kids basic kitchen safety and cooking skills.

Bartell has offered kids in the kitchen cooking classes for about four years. While she said she generally does not have a cap on how many kids can do a class at a time, she has discovered more than 20 gets a bit chaotic.

“Ideally it’s 10-15 kids. It’s a little easier to handle,” she said.

Bartell generally does the classes in the home of the child who is hosting the class, just like she would with an adult who hosts a Pampered Chef party. With larger groups, she has also met at the Tea Community Hall.

Besides offering small group classes in homes, she has also worked with the Parker summer rec program, 4-H and Girl Scouts. She has also gone into schools to teach in the FACS classrooms.

“I go into the schools and teach some of their FACS classes on teaching some life skills, like doing mac and cheese in the microwave because we have the pasta cooker,” she said.

Bartell noted that Pampered Chef has conducted research on getting kids involved in cooking. They found that if they can get kids cooking between 8 and 10 years old, they are 90 times more likely to cook for themselves as adults.

“That’s huge when we gather our kids into the kitchen and teach them life skills,” she said.

To read the entire story, subscribe.