Bay Area culinary center offers cooking classes for kids during summer

TAMPA, Fla. - At AJ’s Kitchen Drawer in Tampa, the culinary center is usually filled with the sights and sounds of cooking.

During the summer, kids cook the cuisine.

The local business hosts 12 weeks of summer camps, each with a different theme. One focuses on comfort foods.

"Anything that just smells, feels and tastes homey," chef instructor Keith Simpkins explained.

On this particular day, the kids were making pancakes, brownies and sloppy joes. Simpkins loves to explain the importance of mixing ingredients in the proper order.

"We teach them, but we put it all in their hands," owner AJ Albrecht said. "So, they're the ones who are measuring it, mixing it start to finish."

Along with learning the important measurements in both cooking and especially baking, Albrecht hopes these camps serve as building blocks for lifelong skills.

"We really like to inspire a bunch of young chefs," he said. "This is something they could be using every day for the rest of their lives."

Even though this camp focuses on comfort foods, both instructors stress the importance of taking kids out of their comfort zones when it comes to trying new foods and ingredients. They use the sloppy joe as a catalyst for that.

"As an instructor, I've definitely seen kids change their palates and can change their minds on how they feel about certain foods because my food philosophy is there's no such thing as not liking something, just haven't had the right way," Simpkins said.

Outside of summer camps, AJ’s Kitchen Drawer offers private cooking classes, corporate team-building workshops and date night events.

For more information, click here.

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