AID Stirs up Enjoyment of Cooking

While learning there are many different recipes one can make with fruit, one culinary student recently learned that fruit smoothies are not his favorite. However, this is knowledge Michael Rodgers would not have known if he had been hesitant about trying new food.

As it turned out, having the opportunity to try new food was his favorite part about the "Basic Culinary Skills: An Introduction to Kitchen Safety & Food Preparation" class sponsored by The Association for persons with Intellectual Disabilities (AID).

Rodgers was one of eight students in the class, which was taught by Christine Stokes, a SEMO college student who works for AID part-time and has a passion for cooking. The course was a total of 12 hours long and broken into six two-hour sessions. This was the second cooking class offered by AID this year.

In this introductory course students learned a variety of skills including: general kitchen safety, cross-contamination safety, measuring wet/dry ingredients, mixing, knife skills, oven/stove safety, and how to follow recipes. Some of the dishes they learned to make included watermelon pops, pan-fried potatoes and onions, brownies, fresh fruit smoothies, chicken fajitas, and nutty parmesan fish.

The course concluded with a meal the students cooked for their family and friends, enabling them to share what they learned, as well as celebrate the completion of the course. Some of the guests invited were students from the first session of classes.

One student, Jill Hanschen, appreciated the variety of recipes in the class and especially enjoyed learning new ways to fix potatoes, such as frying them. Hanschen, who enjoys cooking and baking at her Regency Management apartment, said her favorite part about the class was learning different ways of cooking a variety of food and how to use certain tools in the kitchen.

"I just like cooking," she added.

That enjoyment of cooking has caught on with other students, as many of them have expressed an interest in helping with future meals served at VIP Industries, as well as at their homes, Stokes noted. In fact, the culinary class graduates will be an integral part of the next two holiday parties hosted at VIP Industries.

"They are going to be helping in every aspect of the shopping, cooking, and set up," Stokes said.

The extra help will be much appreciated as there is much work involved in preparing the Thanksgiving and Christmas meals which traditionally serve between 150 to 250 people.

For more information about the culinary course or other programs offered through AID please contact their office at 573-334-1166 or visit their Web site at www.vipindustries.com/aid.