I started cooking seriously when I was about 10 years old. By the time I was 11, I made all the dinners for my family. People are astonished at this fact. I know the world is different now. Kids are so entrenched in sports, extracurricular activities, music, dance, volunteering at charities and all the things that give them an edge on their college application, there is little time for them to participate in household activities. It seems families barely have time to get dinner on the table, let alone think about teaching your children how to cook.
Both my mother and father both worked, and my mother really needed help with cooking and household chores. My mother was strong, powerful and resourceful, and she saw four able bodies in my siblings and I, and she had no qualms about utilizing these eight tiny hands to assist her. My mom always made sure we were taken care of, but she also allowed us to take care of her and our family as well. We all worked together as a unit and were able to contribute in ways we all enjoyed and were good at.
My mom Irene at a fruit stand later in life
I was a good cook out of the gate. I had been observing and helping my mother for years, but I was also extremely organized and clean. I had to clean up after myself after cooking so she never fretted about the mess I might make in the kitchen; it was mine to deal with. Perhaps I gained my great organizational skills in part by observing my mother in the kitchen but also because I wanted to go outside and play just like any other kid!
The most formative thing my mother did for me was to entrust me with managing our household food budget. We had very little discretionary money; we had a pretty fixed and tight budget. In 1977, we had $200 a month to feed a family of six. My older sister Debbie was largely out of the house by then, but I’m sure you’ll agree 200 dollars was not a lot of money for a month's worth of groceries.
I would plan the meals for the month and create the shopping lists myself. My mom would drop me off at the grocery store and go run other errands, swing back and pick me up in one hour, loaded with our month's worth of groceries. On a good month, one where we had a little extra money, we would go out mid-month and get an additional $50 or so in produce. I think one of the reasons I understood the gravity of this task and the responsibility I was bestowed with was because I assisted my mother when she went grocery shopping prior to her turning the task over to me.
My mom Irene and our family car
Until I was seven, we lived in the country and ate mostly what we grew and preserved but I would accompany my mother on the occasional outing to a grocery store. Being the youngest of four kids, I had the wonderful gift of having my mother all to myself at times. On these grocery store outings, my mother would put me in the shopping cart and hand me the little red clicker, as we called it, a kind of a pre-calculator contraption. You could perform simple addition by pressing the little buttons down. My job was three-fold: addition, reading and to tell my mother when we reached a specific total. How great is that? I learned math, how to read, how to understand nutrition and how to stick to a budget by assisting my mother at the grocery store.
My mother would hand me an item, and I would enter the price of the item in the little red clicker. If we had $200 to spend, she would also ask that I let her know when we hit $180 so she could prioritize what we were purchasing. Of course, I was also tasked with letting her know when we hit the $200 mark. Sometimes items got removed and replaced depending on their importance. She taught me that money is not unlimited and should be used wisely.
If an item had a label, I was tasked with reading the label and to determine if it was a good value and a wholesome product. I was to make sure the main ingredient was what it should be; canned tomatoes should list tomatoes as the first ingredient not water. My mother worked as a cook in a nursing home at this time and this is where she learned about nutrition. She was able to teach me about sodium, fat, and sugar content in food. She taught me about calories and how some foods were more calorically dense than others. She taught me how to identify which food offered more nutritional value for the money. She taught me what foods offered little to no nutritional value. She taught me how many calories different types of people required and that calories can be reduced if you need to lose weight. She taught me that salt makes people retain water and can lead to high blood pressure. She taught me that sugar is what makes people feel overstimulated and then really tired. These simple lessons helped me understand that nutrition matters and that you can eat well by being thoughtful about what you put in your shopping cart.
She also taught me about generosity and sacrifice. On more than one occasion, I witnessed my mother observing the person, usually someone she knew, in the check-out line in front of us. She would notice that they were taking an item or two out of their shopping bags and giving it back to the cashier. My mother would take those items and add them to our bill and give the items back to the person. This was a very low-key way to offer assistance. The people behind us and around us would never even know what my mother had done it. People were always touched by the gesture but the way she did it allowed them to keep their dignity.
When the recipient of her generosity left, she would instruct me to remove items from our groceries that totaled the same amount. She would take me out of the cart and have me go put the items back where we got them. It was a very clear choice she made in having me put our own food back on the shelves. I will never forget that experience, both being sad that I wouldn’t get to eat that steak and proud that we had helped a friend. I learned at a young age, when we got to the check-out line, the money was gone. I would not even look at the candy as too not make my mother feel bad. It was there that I learned restraint, sacrifice and that I too, can make a difference.
My great niece Daphne cooking at The Chopping Block when she was two. She's 12 years old now!
When I opened The Chopping Block in 1997, we did not offer children’s classes. This was primarily because I couldn’t meet the demand I had for adult classes. When we opened our Lincoln Square location in 2004, we were finally able to offer our much-awaited kids and teens cooking classes. I personally feel this is the most important programming we offer, and I think after reading about my personal experience you might now understand why. My own experience of cooking as a child clearly fostered my love of the kitchen, but it, and my mother, gave me a great sense of worthiness, confidence, organization, resourcefulness, and humbleness.
We understand the demands of raising children and the overwhelming amount of activities families are juggling. Life is very different in these times, but we believe there is something so much more at stake than just learning how to make pancakes when kids learn to cook. We believe teaching kids to cook sets them up for adulthood. Let your kids cook, let them take responsibility, let them be there for you and make your family dinner… trust me, it will make a difference for your children and your family. Best of all, we will do the teaching, and you can enjoy the results!
