Children savor cooking class

April 8, 2005

MARK KELSEY/Frontiersman managing editor

WASILLA - The teacher spoke steadily and expressively as her eyes moved from face to eager face in a semicircle in front of her.

Occasionally pausing to ask a question or solicit a suggestion, she rarely had to wait for her attentive group of mostly 9- to 11-year-olds to volunteer answers.

But this was no regular classroom. Instead of a roomful of neatly aligned desks, instructor Sherri Kepler presided over a well-appointed gourmet kitchen, and her students sat at a breakfast bar, waiting for their next adventure in hands-on cooking.

"At this age, if you can get them excited (about cooking), it's a a lifelong thing," Kepler said.

The Pint-Size Cooking Workshop, offered every Saturday morning in the model kitchen at Allen & Petersen's Creekside Plaza location in Wasilla, is designed to do just that. Kepler's class appears to be a success, judging by the smiles and conversation among the participants last weekend as they assembled their "hot pockets" of pepperoni, cheese and sauce and dessert hot pockets stuffed with apples.

Donna Mauldin, of Palmer, said her three daughters, 10-year-old Michaela and 9-year-old twins Candace and Catherine, really enjoy the class and will make it part of their Saturday morning routine.

"It's a neat setting to get to do something outside of the house," she said.

Tim Callister, of Wasilla, watched as his two daughters, Shayla, 11, and Haley, 9, dove into their finished hot pockets, browned and steaming, fresh from the oven. It was their first time taking the class, but likely not their last.

"I can tell by Haley's expression that she wants to come back," he said.

A kitchen store specialist at Allen & Petersen, Kepler said her own approach to preparing food is rooted in her appreciation of its place in family life.

"Cooking is the heart of the home," she said. "It's a great family activity."

And as the young chefs enjoyed their edible creations, Kepler emphasized the point of home-cooked meals.

"If you bake it yourself," she said, "You can make it taste better."