Fearless!

As many of you know, I believe children are only limited by our imagination. The children in our lives are more often than not the recipients of our fears as well as our dreams and expectations. When we expect more they tend to give more. Give them wings, show them how to use them, let them know the consequences of misuse and lovingly let them fly. That's the instructional philosophy behind Jr. Chef Central and the approach I take to teaching every child.
Here are more pictures (courtesy of Agriculture in the Classroom) of the event in Costa Mesa at the end of June where Master Jr. Chefs Allison, Alyssa, Ben & Kevin stretched their wings and took to flight. At ages 11, 12, 13 & 14. Thought these put the magnitude of what they did in focus.


"Karla,
Thank you so much for your participation with Jr. Chef Central at our 2008 National Ag in the Classroom Conference in Orange County. Our attendees absolutely loved the presentation and we hope that you all enjoyed yourselves too! We look forward to working with you much more in the future!
Sincerely, Kelly
(Kelly Cormier, Communications Coordinator, California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom)

Reality Check

When I created this blog I imagined myself writing witty daily essays on the role food plays in my life. It quickly became apparent that I could either live life or document it! So, instead of the wonderful insights I'd love to share reality dictates that I keep it short, to the point and let our pictures tell a thousand words. Oh - and words from others I'll be sure to share, like this from Chef Pannell, Culinary Arts Director for Sacramento Job Corp, and Publisher of Cusine Noir magazine (www.cuisinenoir.com):

Thank you and your Jr. Chefs soooo much for coming and entertaining the troops(job corp Culinary Art program students) today. The did so well and the class was very impressed and proud. The salads were very tasty and colorful and seasoned very well. The trainees went back for seconds.

Please let the Jr. Chefs know that they did a great job and l like the fact that they are still are kids at heart.

Once again, thank you very much for coming and sharing,

Chef Pannell

P.S. Some of the trainees were even intimidated by the skills and by the Jr. Chefs not needing a lot of attention from you during their demos.