Teaching Kids to Appreciate Food – Andrew Kaplan of Yum-o!

Andrew Kaplan is Director of Rachael Ray’s Yum-o! non-profit organization.

“Food has an impact on everyone,” Andrew Kaplan tells me as we chat over coffee on a cold and dark winter evening in New York City. “Everyone’s got that story growing up – a smell they remember, a favorite dish their mother or father made, or a favorite restaurant in their town. It’s something everyone relates to and it brings people together.”

Growing up, food was central in Kaplan’s family. His father worked in the food industry and was a health enthusiast, and his mother got him involved in the kitchen at an early age.

“My mom was the chef of the family, so she always cooked, and I always watched her cook,” he says. “I’d sit on the chair and watch her, and help her stir and help her make something.”

Today, the CIA-trained chef creates familial connections to food for kids and parents across the country as Director of Rachael Ray’s Yum-o! foundation. Yum-o! has a three-part focus – Cook, Feed and Fund – with an overall mission of empowering kids and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking.

Kaplan speaks thoughtfully about the work of Yum-o! There is a quiet tenacity and commitment evident as he talks about his work. At the center, is getting kids involved in the kitchen.

“That’s what got me interested in food. Let them stir a sauce, let them chop a little,” he says. “When you cook your own meal it’s healthier. You know what ingredients you’re using and what ingredients you’re putting into it.”

Kaplan has worked frequently with kids and he learned early on that ignorance about food and nutrition was complex and not simply defined by socio-economic factors. He recounts the story of a time – working in Miami – when he was preparing to take a group of underprivileged kids to a restaurant for a food experience they would not normally have. The owner of one establishment asked, “Why inner city or underprivileged kids? We’ve got the wealthiest kids in Miami right down the block and they don’t know crap about food.”

Sometime after, Kaplan was producing a cooking demonstration for Rachael Ray and they began talking about kids and food. Ray also started cooking at an early age, and grew up with a strong appreciation for the role of food in family life. “We had very similar visions and she expanded them more,” Kaplan says. Out of that discussion more than three-and-a-half years ago, Yum-o! took shape, and Kaplan moved to New York to start up the not-for-profit organization. The mission is extremely important to Ray. “Food is the way she gives back,” says Kaplan.

Issues of health and wellness in America certainly help to drive Yum-o! programming, but underlying it all is a steadfast belief that food is all about family and enjoyment.

“For us, it’s the joys of food and cooking – the fact that we’re motivated by it and we can share it with other people,” says Kaplan. “It’s making food fun for people, getting them into the kitchen, and in turn they’ll eat healthier and the obesity rate will go down.”

The philosophy extends to creating recipes where even the names inspire a smile. Kaplan cites Rachael Ray’s recipe for Buffalo Chicken Chili as a recipe with plenty of family-appeal that’s also wholesome, flavorful and easy to prepare. Fun recipe names get kids interested in cooking, get them involved in the kitchen, and get them to eat good food. There are hundreds of kid-friendly recipes available on the Yum-o! website, many contributed by members of the online community. There are also tips and tools, and stories about individuals and organizations making a difference through food and nutrition in local communities.

Yum-o! looks to reach kids where they eat. A partnership with the New York City Department of Education Office of SchoolFood focused on changing the image of cafeteria food, led to the creation of a delicious and nutritious Yum-o!-inspired lunch menu that was served last October in schools in all five boroughs. Nearly 700,000 meals were served to students and teachers who lined up for NYC Sizzling Soft Taco with Southwest Roasted Chicken and Corn Relish.

“This was a healthy meal that met the USDA and New York City SchoolFood guidelines, but they were so excited about it. That’s what food should be, food that kids get excited about,” says Kaplan. Plans are in development to work with other school districts in the future.

While cooking is the educational component, the Yum-o! platforms of Feed and Fund also address an overall relationship with food. Kaplan explains that there are over 13 million kids who go to sleep at night and wake up not knowing where their next meal is coming from. Yum-o! works to create awareness about the issue of hunger in America. He says the foundation has helped to feed well over a million people and Rachael Ray’s presence brings significant attention to the issue. “We’ve gotten letters from people that say I never knew the issue of hunger existed in America until I saw Rachael talking about it.”

Yum-o! also funds cooking scholarships for public school kids who aspire to a career in the food industry and has awarded nearly 30 scholarships for students who hope to cook professionally or manage a hotel or restaurant.

Kaplan has clearly found his calling and savors the organization’s power to transform. “I thought I had a lot to share and give back and teach people about food and cooking. One of the main ways that I wanted to make a difference was with kids.” He sees food and the dinner table as central to family life – a place where memories are created – and has set a scrumptious community table that allows him to share that experience with others.

“I still cook and love cooking, but I’d rather make a difference – serve if you will,” says Kaplan. “It’s changing lives one recipe at a time.”

Photos courtesy of Lisa Plotnik

©2010 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Casey’s Cookies – Chocolate Chip Connoisseur Makes Dough and Helps Others

There’s a lot of goodness baked into Casey Blankenship’s homemade chocolate chip cookies. Folded into each delectable batch are scores of rich, silky chocolate chips, a dash of dedication, a sprinkling of business acumen and a spoonful of public service. Casey Blankenship is an extraordinary baker – and at age 14 – he is one exceptional teenager.

Each Saturday – while most of his peers are still asleep – Casey rises at 7:00 AM and packs dozens of cookies – baked the previous night – into a wagon, which he pulls to the edge of Huddy Park in Highlands, New Jersey. There, he sets up a card table, attaches a placard printed with the words “Casey’s Cookies,” and puts out a spread of chocolate chip, oatmeal, peanut butter and snicker doodle cookies. By 9 AM he is opened for business and is selling his cookies to a loyal clientele who also visit the farmers market held at the park each weekend.

Casey has taken the iconic neighborhood lemonade stand to a new level. Through word-of-mouth and a smart distribution program, he does a brisk trade. Ten percent of all his profits are donated to Heifer International, a fact that is prominently noted on his glossy business cards.

I meet up with Casey at his headquarters, in front of the Water Witch Coffee & Tea Company on Waterwitch Avenue in Highlands. He is trim and wiry and wears glasses. And, his blonde hair is tinted emerald green. He is courteous, well-mannered and straightforward. He explains that he started baking when he was 8-years-old. Why, I ask?

“Because I just like eating cookies,” is his very direct response.

A love of cookies seems to have inspired a budding entrepreneur. At the age of 11, Casey was already baking for his family and since he liked to cook, he stopped by a local restaurant – The Lusty Lobster – to ask the chef for some culinary advice. He’d bring the restaurant staff his homemade cookies as a thank-you gift for the guidance they gave him. The owner suggested that Casey should try and sell his cookies, and let him place a basket of cookies in the restaurant foyer with a money jar, so that patrons could purchase the cookies. The cookies proved so popular that soon Casey had set up baskets and jars at several other eateries in town. Today, he bakes between five- to six-hundred cookies a week to meet the demand for his product.

He is a self-taught baker. His signature recipes were achieved with some tinkering and experimentation. Chocolate Chip is Casey’s best-selling cookie and his personal favorite. I ask what his friends think of Casey’s culinary enterprise.

“They think I’m crazy,” he replies casually. “They say, Hey Casey, let’s go play basketball, but I’m like, no I have to go bake cookies.”

He charges fifty cents per cookie and says he has donated nearly two-thousand dollars of his profits to Heifer International. Since 1944, Heifer has helped 10.5 million families in more than 125 countries move toward greater self-reliance through the gift of livestock and training in environmentally sound agriculture. Casey chose Heifer International for his philanthropic efforts because it is the preferred charity of his favorite celebrity, Alton Brown of the Food Network.

The oldest of four brothers, Casey spends two hours baking every day, and all day on Friday during the summer. For the annual Highlands Clamfest in early August, he baked nearly two-thousand cookies.

I ask him why he thinks the customers keep coming back for more. He shrugs. “Because they like cookies?” he suggests, and then pauses and adds drolly, “Maybe it’s my green hair?”

He clearly seems to enjoy the social aspect of his work. “Doing this, I get to meet a lot of new people.”

He is well-equipped to keep the business functioning smoothly. “I’ve got a really big mixer and it’s really cool,” he tells me. “It’s a heavy duty one and I got it for Christmas, and it has flame decals on it.”

Casey freely offers advice for home bakers who are interesting in making cookies: “Make them from scratch, and don’t use mix. And, use actual flour and not corn syrup. And, actually use sugar and good ingredients.”

Does he aspire to a career in baking? “I don’t want to have a big corporation,” Casey says. “I just want to have a little town bakery.”

Ken Harber is the owner of The Baking Company and the Water Witch Coffee & Tea Company in Highlands. He has been a friend, mentor and role model to Casey. Says Casey of Ken, “He’s so cool and he has so much advice he can give me.”

“The baking is just a symptom of a great person under construction,” Ken tells me when I ask him to describe Casey.

Harber is impressed by the teen’s business skills. “His math is very good. He knows how to figure how much he can make in his allotted time, and his ingredients and all that. He’s learned a lot.”

Harber was more than willing to make a place for Casey’s Cookies in his store. “I told him it’s good for the neighborhood and it’s good for you.”

“He’s just as nice as could be and I would do anything for him,” says Harber. “If one other kid around here sees this kid making something out of himself, then it’s worth it.”

Meanwhile, Casey has heard talk that he is a local celebrity, and gives me a slight smile when I bring it up.

“Everyone keeps telling me that, but I’m trying to stay modest.”

Casey’s Cookies accepts special orders. Please give at least 24 hours notice for orders of 12-100 cookies. For orders of 100+ cookies, please give one week’s notice. Delivery is available within Highlands for a $2.00 delivery charge.

©2009 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Kitchen Fun: A Cook Book for Children (1932)

My stash of cookbooks has overtaken the house. I’ve lost count and I’m considering running a classified advertisement seeking a part time cookbook librarian. My tastes run from the classic to the historic to the curious. Some cookbooks – one or two a month, maybe – are purchased on an impulse. I do wonder what kind of dinner party will inspire me to cook from Mountain Makin’s in the Smokies and the contents of the Sherlock Holmes Cookbook are a bit of a mystery. The I Love Lucy Cookbook makes me laugh, and I get nostalgic when I page through my volumes of children’s cookbooks. My collection contains a treasure trove of potential culinary adventures, so I thought it might be fun to do a little exploring from time to time.

Like many children’s cookbooks of the late 19th and early 20th century, Kitchen Fun: A Cook Book for Children, published in 1932 by Louisa Price Bell had the appearance of a storybook. Bell was, in fact, a children’s storybook writer. I got my copy through an online antique cookbook dealer, and the charming illustration of the little girl on the cover bears a striking resemblance to my mom when she was a youngster.

Kitchen Fun has 24 recipes with step-by-step directions and graphic symbols of food ingredients, measuring cups and water faucets make instructions simple to follow. I have a friend who was a pioneering food writer, and she told me she made the recipe for “Yummy Eggs” from Kitchen Fun on her honeymoon. The recipes are simple, sturdy and dependable – a solid foundation for children learning the ins and outs of the kitchen for the first time.

My copy has the name “Jean Brown” written in pencil above the table of contents page. I wonder who Jean Brown grew up to be, and what kinds of dishes she liked to cook as an adult?

Since autumn is just around the corner, and it is apple picking season, here’s a recipe from Kitchen Fun that will appeal to children of any age. Spicy Apple Sauce is simple, thick and delicious, with sweet flavors of juicy apples, peppery cloves and hints of honey.

Spicy Apple Sauce

From Kitchen Fun: A Cook Book for Children, The Harter Publishing Company, Cleveland, Ohio, 1932

6 Sour Apples (I used “Honey Crisp Apples” from the North Fork of Long Island)
2/3 cup sugar
1 Cup Water
8 Whole Cloves

Wash apples. Cut apples in quarters. Take out core carefully. Put apples, sugar, water, and cloves in saucepan. Cook ½ hour slowly. Mash through colander or strainer.

For more on children’s cookbooks, read American Children’s Cookbooks of the 50s and 60s which has just been posted on the Culinary Types main site.

©2007 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Kids in the Kitchen

Teach a young person to cook and they learn a bounty of life skills – resourcefulness, teamwork, organization, creativity and sensory skills. As a young chef I was reared on "The Betty Crocker Boys and Girls Cookbook," which featured recipes like “Mad Hatter Meatballs” and “Polka Dot Macaroni and Cheese.” Mom let us pick our favorites, which my brothers and I would each cook in rotation for the family dinner. Later on, I remember becoming quite enamored of the “Peanuts Cook Book” and making Linus’s “Security Cinnamon Toast” and “Red Baron Root Beer.” Both volumes are still on my cookbook shelf.

At a recent gathering of old friends, we were reminiscing about learning to cook as kids and realized that many of us were alumni of the “Betty Crocker Boy's and Girls Cookbook.” Some had even memorized certain recipes even though they no longer owned a copy of the cookbook. So it’s clear that experiences in the kitchen can be formative for kids.

Think about it. When did you first learn to cook? Was there a defining moment as a youngster, or a habit learned early on in life? How does that early experience impact your eating habits, your purchasing choices and your passion for food today?

More and more professionals have recognized the importance of kids and families cooking together, particularly as issues of diet and obesity among young people become a national concern. FamilyCook Productions (http://www.familycookproductions.com/) uses family time in the kitchen as an opportunity to learn, and develops curriculum for young people and their parents centered around meal time. The mission of FamilyCook Productions is to “bring families together around delicious fresh food while positively impacting their health and well being.”

And now, chef and award-winning cookbook author Rozanne Gold has published “Kids Cook 1-2-3: Recipes For Young Chefs Using Only 3 Ingredients.” Rozanne, former chef to New York Mayor Ed Koch, three-time James Beard Cookbook award winner and all around neat person, pioneered the idea of simple fresh ingredients and flavorful meals with her three-ingredient approach well before anyone was trying to knock out meals in 30 minutes. Her charming volume and its companion website http://www.kidscook123.com/ addresses kids in honest, enthusiastic language about the pleasures of cooking. There are whimsical recipes like “Bowties with Broccoli,” “Crazy Leg Drumsticks” and “Strawberries-in-Nightgowns” that are bound to capture the imagination of future gourmets everywhere. Not to mention a few grown-ups like me!

What was your childhood inspiration in the kitchen? I’d love to know.

© 2006 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved