Cooking Camp & Food Allergies

It's been a great summer.   Last spring, when we started planning our Cooking Camp for Kids, our goal was to have four camps with eight kids per camp.  With 32 kids total, we knew the camp could be profitable, which would allow us to do it again, but the groups would also be small enough to be a hands on experience for each child.  Fortunately, enrollment exceeded our expectations.  We ended the summer having 38 kids attend the camp, and many requests to do some type of classes in the fall.  We are planning that now.

One of the things that surprised me was the number of food allergies that kids have today.  Gluten seemed to be the main allergen of the kids we had enrolled, and we got first hand experience of what parents of children with food allergies face when planning meals.  We do have meals that are gluten free, but Kim (our chef) wanted to try preparing meals with gluten free flour, and rice crackers as breading for some of our breaded dishes.  We aren't a gluten free kitchen, but we can prepare several gluten free meals for our customers that require it.

There is lots of information on the web about gluten free and allergen free foods.  Here is a link to a recipe for gluten free pita bread that we are going to try in the next couple of days.  We will let you know how it turns out.