Ever consider a cooking camp for your kids? This summer, kids who enjoy cooking can take their culinary skills to the next level. The Essex Resort & Spa hosts the wonderful Camp Cook at their lovely resort nestled in the Green Mountains in Essex, Vermont. Camp Cook allows children ages 10-16 to discover their inner chef while learning kitchen safety, preparing gourmet meals, and collecting fresh herbs and vegetables from the resort’s garden to use daily.
My daughter and I had the pleasure of visiting The Essex Resort & Spa and attending a preview of what the kids at Camp Cook get to experience everyday. For our session, we made delicious crepes! Our instructor was wonderful and attentive. She encouraged the kids to take risks and try things for themselves. We also visited the resort’s vegetable garden, chicken coop and pig pen.
Camp Cook runs from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with activities that include:
- Collecting eggs from the onsite chicken coop
- Knife skills and kitchen safety and sanitation
- Visiting the nearby Maple Wind Farm to learn about sustainable diversified local farming
- Learning to make Crab Rangoon, Homemade Manicotti, assorted baked goods and more
- Producing a cookbook
- Making a meal for Spectrum Youth Center by participating in Cooking For A Cause, a community service program
- Harvesting ingredients from the resort’s extensive vegetable and herb gardens
- Daily swimming in the resort pool
In addition to the cooking classes, kids swim daily and take field trips to nearby areas. The program ends with a party where parents are invited to try what their kids have made. During our crepe class, we tried a strawberry preserve made by the camp kids. It was amazing!! Here’s my daughter creating her own crepe. This picky eater even ate 2!
The price for Camp Cook is a very reasonable $400 per child per week, plus taxes. Mid-week room rates for five-night stays start at $139 per room per night and can be booked at www.essexresortspa.com or by phone at 800.727.4295. Check out my resort review here.
If your kids love to cook, I highly recommend giving Camp Cook a try. Wouldn’t it be great to turn over some of your cooking duties to the kids?
Oh this looks so fun and amazing!! I love that they harvest and get the food before they cook with it!! Way to teach kiddos to be resourceful and what it feels like to have your food available in a garden or farm setting!! I hope more programs like this exist and teach our kiddos to want to farm and cook with the freshest ingredients!!
I would love to try those crepes! And it looks like there are very healthy menu items used there!
That sounds like loads of fun. I love that they are making healthy treats for the kids.
I love that they are providing a variety of foods for kids to try as well.
This is awesome! My kids love to cook. They would really enjoy this!
What an incredibly unique, hands on experience! I love that you can encourage an interest in the culinary arts from such a young age!
I agree. I was not very interested in cooking when I was younger. This would have been a great influence.
That does look like THE place to be. I’d love to go and bring the kids along too!