Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008
Chopping and mixing their way through summer
Demand for cooking camp climbs as youngsters take on the kitchen
by Meghan Tierney | Staff Writer
Kiera Murphy of Wheaton, 12, Samantha Myers of Potomac, 11, and Suzanne Xu of North Potomac, 12, try their hand at chocolate mousse during a session of cooking camp at Chef Bryan's Kitchen in Gaithersburg.
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Throughout the week, the teens made fresh waffles, oven-roasted potatoes with caramelized onions, poached salmon and julienne vegetables tossed with herb butter. But the cream of the crop, some said, was the chocolate mousse.
"It's easy to make at home, and it's so good," Jessica Konecke, 13, of Gaithersburg gushed while the frothy confections, piped into dainty dessert dishes, chilled in the refrigerator.
"My mom tried some last year and said it was the best chocolate mousse she's ever had," added Lindsay Tubbs, 13, of Darnestown.
Instead of spending their summer at a traditional camp filled with hiking, crafts and canoeing, Konecke, Tubbs and about 15 other youths spent a week chopping cilantro, dicing tomatoes and squeezing pastry bags at "Cooking with Chef Bryan," a weeklong camp in Gaithersburg.
Chef Bryan Davis, a graduate of L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, has hosted the camps since moving from Silver Spring to a second-floor cooking studio in the Kentlands three years ago. Davis is the owner of Chef Bryan's Kitchen, a catering company and neighborhood cooking school.
"Most of the kids, they want to be here," said Ian Ferguson, a friend and fellow chef who helps keep an extra set of eyes on the young cooks. "The parents tell us how they sit at home watching the Food Network."
The culinary camps have been heating up with each year. Davis scheduled his own sessions and partnered with the county and the City of Gaithersburg for two more. The camps, split into separate age groups, have been so popular that an afternoon session was added for this week.
The two-hour tutorials begin with an introduction to the day's menu, as well as cooking techniques, presentation tips and safety protocol. The young chefs divide into groups to prepare the dishes and, finally, sit down to share the meal. On the menu July 31 was wraps stuffed with chicken, shrimp or sirloin beef, a tomato and basil pasta salad and the mousse.
Many of the chefs-in-training wanted to make tasty treats with their friends, but for others cooking was more serious business.
"I want to be a chef when I grow up," said Hannah Minkoff, 14, of Gaithersburg. Minkoff and Konecke were both in the first camp three years ago and have returned every summer.
"They love it," Davis said as he watched the teens, cloaked in long white aprons, bustle around the homey kitchen. "I've had a lot of parents say, ‘Of all the camps my kids did this summer, this was their favorite.'"
The next session of "Cooking with Chef Bryan" will be from 10 a.m. to noon Aug. 18-22 at Chef Bryan's Kitchen, 251 W. Market St., Gaithersburg. Cost $225. This session is not being offered through the Montgomery County Department of Recreation. To learn more about "Cooking with Chef Bryan" or other county camps, visit www.montgomery
countymd.gov/rec or www.bryanskitchen.com.
