How COOK! Began

COOK! Programs was truly the inspiration of our community, who, in the late winter of 2009, began calling our business, requesting a cooking camp for their kids and teens. Inspired, founder, Tracy Cates, created a camp that summer and hosted 60+ kids over a 6-week span. The COOK! Programs camps grew quickly from there; it is clear that the kids in our community want to cook, and our staff love to show them that they can!

Who We Are

COOK! Is an ever-changing cast of culinary characters, unique in their ability to both cook and teach. Our chefs are professionals in their field, most have worked in the industry for years and are from varied backgrounds. We also nurture our student body to learn, grow, and take more and more responsibility in our kitchen. For those who want to, our leadership track will often lead to a paid internship and long-lasting relationships.

Our Philosophy

We have always operated under the guiding principle that kids and teens are capable of doing whatever they set their minds to. Our programs are all hands-on (not demo classes). We start from scratch, use high quality ingredients, and we empower our students to take responsibility for each project. We never prep ingredients for our students; if the recipe calls for a diced onion, our students start by getting their tools, setting up their station, and beginning with a whole, unpeeled onion. This way they can go home and know exactly what they need to do on their own.

How COVID has affected COOK!

Due to COVID19, 2020 is the first year we have not held our camps and classes in-person. We’ve used this past summer to experiment with how to translate our program into distance learning. We’ve been so sad not to be with our kids, rubbing elbows and braving the chaos of our large kitchen together, but we’ve also learned that meeting remotely, in our own home-kitchens, has its up-sides. For one, our kids get to use the tools and the space they’re familiar with.

We are eager to return to the kitchen with our young cooks, but until then, we will continue to find ways to gather online, share our passions, skills, and kitchen wisdom, and help our COOK! kids to nurture their love for food, experimentation, creativity, and for feeding others.