Teen Culinary Immersion: Cooking for Ages 15-18
A hands-on, in-person three-day cooking camp, where each class culminates in a meal. This camp is limited to 12 students. Review our registration and cancellation policies here.
Dates and Times: Monday through Wednesday, July 22-24 from 10 am-2 pm.
Age Group: 15-18 year olds
Financial aid is available. If you are interested, please complete this Google Form. We will respond no later than June 18 about offering aid. If you have questions about the camp, financial aid, or the deadline, please contact info@18reasons.org
Jump into a three day cooking adventure with Chefs Gracie and Elise! We invite all food loving teens to join us in the kitchen for a fully immersive cooking camp. Teens will level up their knife skills, learn to make fresh tortillas and noodles, bake, roast, puree and steam their way to a more delicious kitchen repertoire. This course will be focused on helping teens prepare to cook for themselves. We welcome teens ages 15-18 to join in on this culinary escapade.
Day one will be all about knife skills and timing. We’ll start by baking cookies and assembling delectable ice cream sandwiches. Then students will get a chance to really focus on their slicing and dicing as they cut vegetables to be transformed into fresh spring rolls and fried rice.
Day two is all about TACOS! Campers will learn to roast a whole chicken, make a number of fresh salsas and guacamole and work with masa to make fresh tortillas. We’ll source the very best seasonal fruit from Bi-Rite Market to make agua frescas. We’ll also discuss minimizing kitchen waste and planning ahead as we utilize the bones from our roasted chickens and veggie scraps to start a broth for our ramen bar on day three. On the final day of camp, campers will learn to make fresh udon noodles, season a savory ramen broth, soft boil eggs, pickle vegetables and much more! We’ll make homemade boba tea from scratch and celebrate all that we’ve learned over the course of camp as we feast together.
This three-day series is a great opportunity for teens to explore the kitchen, increase their confidence and meet new food loving friends. We hope that all teens who come to this camp will leave with a greater sense of autonomy and self sufficiency. All levels are encouraged! Together we will cook, we will grow, we will laugh, and we will feast!
MENUS
Day 1, Monday July 22, 10 am-2 pm
Knife Skills: Fried Rice and Fresh Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce
Ice Cream Sandwiches!
Skills: knife skills, stir-frying, baking
Allergens: shellfish, peanuts, wheat, dairy, eggs
Day 2, Tuesday July 23, 10 am-2 pm
Taco Bar!
Chicken Tinga
Homemade Tortillas
Guacamole
Salsa
Horchata and Agua Fresca
Skills: roasting, seasoning, flavor development
Allergens: nuts (optional)
Day 3, Wednesday July 24, 10 am-2 pm
Ramen Bar!
Homemade Chicken Miso Broth
Handmade Udon Noodles
Soft Boiled Eggs
Pickles
Homemade Boba!
Skills: intro to broths, handmade noodles and doughs, poaching, pickling
Allergens: wheat, eggs, soy
Vegetarian menu options are available and we can some accommodate dietary restrictions. Please email info@18reasons.org before purchasing a ticket to ensure we can meet your needs.
Let’s Cook Together!
Born and raised in Colorado, Elise Hayashi grew up in a family where knowing how to use a paring knife was more important than riding a bicycle. This sparked her passion for food and cooking at an early age, and she enthusiastically relocated to the Bay Area to study nutrition science at UC Berkeley. Outside of the classroom, Elise helped implement childhood obesity and exercise research, and worked as a pastry assistant to fill her free time with galettes and mousses. She also broadened her experience with food by studying and cooking her way through the Mediterranean diet in Italy, and working on an organic farm in Japan. Now, she is excited to merge her gastronomic backgrounds, and lean into her Japanese and Korean heratige to share her love of food with the 18 Reasons community. During the rare moments when she is not eating, Elise can be found trying out new sports, playing and listening to live music, or wandering the aisles of grocery stores and farmers' markets.
Gracie Schatz has been in the food industry for over fifteen years. In her career, Gracie has worked in a variety of places: as a baker and private chef in Eugene, OR, farming and cooking in Italy, raising pigs in the Sierra Foothills, butchering at the Fatted Calf in San Francisco, managing Avedano’s in Bernal Heights, cooking at Bay Area restaurants Molina and Cala and her own pop-up restaurant, Bread and Bones Supper. In Eugene, she started her own food justice nonprofit, Marigold Cooking Collective. After working with 18 Reasons as a guest instructor for the past 7 years, Gracie has decided to move from Eugene to San Francisco and join us as our head Chef. Her dream is to never stop learning about delicious food, to never stop exploring the many nuanced ways that food brings us joy, connection to culture, identity, seasons and community. 18 Reasons feels like the perfect place to explore this dream and she is so excited to be here!
