Growing Gourmets – Summer Cookery Courses for Teens

Dublin Cookery School sent me details about their upcoming cookery courses. The two Growing Gourmets summer cookery courses for teens look great and I thought my readers might be interested. I checked their website and they have wonderful reviews from past students. My son and I will get a chance to try out one of their evening courses later on this summer.  

As regular readers of the blog will know, my boys are never far from what is going on in our kitchen and are usually stuck in the middle of it, doing it themselves or demanding I do it their way. I love that they enjoy being in the kitchen as much as I do and am really happy with the results. My 8-year-old son making dinner almost entirely by himself is a real treat! I think in today’s world where the focus is so much on quick processed food, it is important to give our children a good grounding in food education and skills while they are young so they will be able to cook for themselves and make healthy choices as an adult. 

My boys at 8 and 5 are constantly giving out about being bored on school holidays and over the summer I usually try to find one or two camps that they can go to to break it up a bit. I imagine you can multiply the boredom by 1000 for teenagers on school holidays. These Growing Gourmet camps sound ideal for budding chefs, keeping them busy and happy for a week and can result in you coming home to a home cooked meal you didn’t make yourself, what’s not to like! 

I have never sent my own two boys to any after school activities involving cooking as I feel it’s too big a risk with their allergies. The explaining and worry doesn’t seem worth it. Dublin Cookery School mention their allergy policy in their advertising which is very reassuring to see. The courses will accommodate food allergies and dietary restrictions as long as they know of them in advance and that the allergies aren’t severe. For example, they can find a substitute or leave out nuts from someone’s recipes/ingredients/cooking station, but they cannot as a kitchen remove all traces of nuts from the air or surroundings. I don’t think you can get much fairer than that, and I would be happy with that reassurance as an allergy mum. 

The classes are small and there is plenty of one to one interaction. The course promises to introduce different tastes, ingredients and cooking techniques to the children in a relaxed and fun environment. They will make a range of dishes from pizzas and pastas to bread, soup, fish and meat. This will give them the skills to prepare a huge range of meals. Sample recipes for the week are dishes like Foccacia, Lemon Drizzle Cake, Thai Meatballs and Brown Soda Bread. 

Details

The courses run for two week lomg sessions in June and are suitable for teens aged 12 – 16. The cookery school is in Blackrock, Co. Dublin. Check their website for full details.

*In return for writing this post about the  Growing Gourmets Summer Courses, my son and I have been invited to attend one of the Dublin Cookery School evening courses together. We will be attending in the summer and I will report back how we got on. All opinions are my own.