Adventure Camp is back for one week only in 2024!
Hello friends!
The stars have aligned and we are offering just one week of Culinary Adventure Camp in summer 2024!
You can get all the details and sign up here:
The background:
In the past we’ve offered this camp (as well as cooking camp) for many years. But in 2023 I announced (below) that we would no longer be offering camp. Our business is growing and we generally don’t have the bandwidth anymore!
BUT - it just so happens my family’s vacation dates and our business calendar are meshing in such a way that we can offer one week of Adventure Camp in 2024! So that’s what we’re doing!
Will we do this again?
I honestly don’t know! Things worked out for us this year, but I’m just not sure whether we’ll do it again in future years or not.
SO - if you’re interested in signing up, get all the info here.
And if you want to be on the email list for future announcements, put your email here:
Announced February 3, 2023:
After much reflection, we’ve made the decision to discontinue Adventure Kitchen summer camps at this time. Happily, our business is growing in lots of exciting ways. But sadly, this means we no longer have the time and capacity to deliver summer camp at the level of quality and creativity we aspire to.
On a ferry passing under the Brooklyn Bridge, on our way to visit the Raaka bean-to-bar chocolate factory in Red hook, Brooklyn in 2019.
Our camps have always been a little different. For example, over the years we’ve taken dozens of kids into New York City for our Culinary Adventure Camp. We would use public transportation to learn about food by traveling, palate-first, through history and culture. And in our Cooking Camps, we’ve explored literature, science, culture and tradition with scores of kids through the lens of cooking.
Our business started with after-school cooking classes at a local elementary school, so teaching and working with kids runs deep for us. And from the beginning, our approach has been to respect our students and campers as eaters and cooks, treating them, along with their choices, their questions and their curiosity, with the dignity they deserve. I’m proud that in all the years I’ve worked with kids, I’ve never once pressured any of them to taste anything they didn’t want to taste. And also, every single child I can think of had a joyful and adventurous experience trying and learning about new foods.
We tried to remember to take one of these pics each year in Adventure Camp! This one was taken on the High Line, above Chelsea Market near the La Newyorkina paleta kiosk in 2019.
Even more than that, I’m proud that from my very first day of teaching, we’ve approached cooking as a way of growing closer to the people and cultures our food is connected to. People eat what they eat because of history and culture, and those stories have always been infused into our cooking classes and camps. Every bite of guacamole contains a thousand years of history. It matters far less to me whether the kids I teach can cook expertly, than whether they know and respect the people their food comes from.
Cooking in disguise during our Series of Unfortunate Events Cooking Camp based on the Lemony Snicket books and Netflix series, in 2018.
If you’re looking for alternative camp experiences in the Montclair, NJ area, there are many wonderful options to choose from! Montclair Culinary Academy, under the direction of Chef Karan Fischer, has amazing cooking camps with lots of different fun themes each year. Chef Rachel Wyman shares her award-winning baking expertise in camps run through her business Rabble Rise Doughnuts. And Surf and Turf is the granddaddy of adventure camps; run by a wonderful group of local middle school teachers, they take kids on all kinds of day trips and overnights, including some culinary adventures.
Kids cooking in teams to each create a menu with tacos and a fancy drink in our Why Did the Chicken Cross the Globe cooking camp (world history through the lens of food) in 2018.
If you still want to cook along with me, our Spice Club Memberships include live Zoom cooking classes, and spots open up a couple of times each year. We have lots of families, teenagers and parent-child teams who cook along with us in Spice Club each month. And I have some new ideas for more ways to keep cooking and learning with kids and families in the future, so stay tuned as our business continues to grow.
In the meantime, if you want your children to learn to love food and cooking, to have an open heart and a curious mind, and to pitch in occasionally to help with the dishes, here’s my advice:
Model curiosity and generosity. Respect their palates. Read lots of books together, and cook the foods that inspire you. Ask lots of questions, and travel whenever you can.
And always thank the person who made the food.