Learning to cook at a young age can provide children with some great benefits at this stage of their life and for their future. They can improve their reading comprehension, boost their fine motor skills, challenge their math skills, express their creativity, gain confidence, and be able to cook for themselves sooner. When you sign your child up for a cooking class, they can meet new friends, explore new cultures through food, expand their culinary palate, and build healthy eating habits for a healthy life.

Here are six places where your child can learn to cook and bake around the Carmel, Indiana, area or online from home.

Sprouts Cooking School

Image via Flickr by shixart1985 Licensed CC BY 2.0

Sprouts Cooking School, located right here in Carmel, offers fun and educational cooking classes meant just for kids. There are classes for three different age groups: Tiny for ages 3 to 5 years old, Junior for 6 to 8 years old, and Tweens for 9 to 13 years old. Each class aims to explore kid-friendly recipes that vary in difficulty based on age group. Classes feature recipes from different cultures so kids can expand their palate. Some recipes your kids will make in these classes include pasta, pizza, cookies, tortilla chips and guacamole, mac ‘n’ cheese, burgers, and breakfast staples. 

In addition to regular kids cooking classes, you can sign up for a family class where you and your kids cook together, a great starter class to gauge your child’s interest in taking classes on their own. Sprouts Cooking School also offers a MemberChef program for kids ages 9 to 13 who are interested in pursuing cooking more in-depth as a hobby or potential career. You can also host a cooking class birthday party for your kids.

Sur La Table

Sur La Table is a national cookware store that also hosts cooking classes for kids, teens, families, and adults both in-store and virtually. At the Sur La Table at Clay Terrace in Carmel, you can register your kids and teens for age-appropriate day camps where they team up with new friends, learn basic kitchen techniques from trained chefs, and make delicious kid-friendly recipes. 

You can register your child or teen for a four-day or five-day cooking camp. The Kids’ Camp is for children 7 to 11 years old, and they learn to create dishes like mac ‘n’ cheese, veggie fried rice, stuffed cheeseburgers, mozzarella sticks, hand pies, omelets, and muffins. The Teens’ Camp is for children ages 12 to 17 years old, and they’ll learn to make include homemade ice cream, California rolls, dumplings, pad Thai, homemade gnocchi, chicken parmesan, tacos, and fresh bread.

In addition, Sur La Table also offers family classes where you and your kids can team up to create amazing dishes. Or, you may be able to register yourself and an older child for one of the main cooking classes that have more complex recipes.

Macaron Bar

The Macaron Bar in Indianapolis hosts in-person macaron classes for kids where they get to learn how to make these delicious French sweets from scratch. The Macarons for Kids class is a 2.5-hour class meant for kiddos ages 8 to 12 years old. They learn fun macaron facts, participate in engaging activities, and make fresh macarons they can take home. Unlike other kids’ cooking classes, parents supervise their child during the class, so you get to learn a thing or two and watch your kid have a blast. In addition, kids work in pairs, so they can make some new friends, too.

For kids 13 years and older, you can sign up for the Intro to Macarons class with your child. In this three-hour class, you’ll work as a team to create homemade macarons and learn some advanced tips from the macaron-making pros at the Bar. This option is best for older chefs and those really interested in baking as a hobby or a career.

The Kids’ Table Virtual Cooking Classes

The Kids’ Table is a Chicago-based kids’ cooking school that also offers virtual classes for kids, teens, and families located around the country. Kids ages 11 and older can participate in classes on their own with little supervision, while the all-ages classes may require more adult supervision.

Here’s how the virtual classes work: You get a recipe and ingredient and supplies list emailed up to a week in advance, so you and your kids can go shopping for everything you need. Then, you’ll log into the exclusive Zoom room with your instructor and a few other participants. Finally, your kids or your family follow along with your instructor to create a delicious and nutritious dish.

All the recipes from the Kids’ Table are vegetarian and have optional modifications to accommodate dietary restrictions and allergies. You can sign up for individual classes, especially if you want to see if you and your kids are interested in taking more classes, or you can sign up for a whole series of classes that have you making new fantastic dishes one or multiple times per week.

The Dynamite Shop

The Dynamite Shop is one of the best online cooking class providers for live classes, which are offered over Zoom. This site offers cooking classes, baking demonstrations, and specialized workshops for kids ages 7 to 17. What’s more, you can have multiple children participate in the same class using the same device for the price of one admission, so it’s a great at-home class option for siblings.

The Dynamite Dinner Club is a 90-minute, weekly cooking series that teaches kids basic kitchen techniques and promotes a positive connection to food for healthy eating habits. Recipes can be adapted to accommodate allergies and dietary restrictions, and some previous dishes kids have made include soup, burritos, baked ziti, sesame orange chicken and rice, pot pie, and paella. 

The Dynamite Baking Club is a Saturday series where kids learn to make cookies, kid-friendly tiramisu, pound cake, brownies, donuts, truffles, and more. You can also sign your kids up for Saturday family workshops where you’ll focus on one special recipe.

At Crème de la Crème of Carmel, we integrate cooking lessons through our Chef It Up! curriculum, so your children can practice their kitchen skills and learn more about nutrition during our daycare and before- and afterschool programs. Contact us today to learn more about how our whole-child curriculum can help your kids thrive.