In 2008 I asked my grandma, a former restaurant owner, to come to Rever and do a cooking class. She has always been interested in what I do at the Ranch and has always loved the kids that I work with. It seemed like a perfect fit to have her come out to Pilot Butte and do a life skills class.
She came out once every two weeks and she would have a menu and she would cook the meals with the youth – one week it was learning to make desserts, another week it was learning how to cook meals like Cornish hens, another week learning how to prepare a meal for the next day, and also proper kitchen skills.
She held the classes for 6 months but eventually had to give them up because it was too much with her full-time job.
The classes went over really well with our youth so a couple years ago, I and another Rever employee, Jada Lemieux, decided to start the program up again. We held the classes every second Wednesday. The first Wednesday in a month would be a cultural cooking class and the second Wednesday would be a life skill class in budgeting for items such as groceries – if you don’t know how to get the groceries or know how to budget in life how would you end up being able to cook?
We cooked Japanese, Mexican, and Aboriginal cuisine. The kids really enjoyed it. When we got to make sushi I swear that was the best night and the kids had a blast making their own individual rolls. We would also learn a bit about the culture as we were cooking. It was hard work but they were excited to eat their creations afterwards.
