My son, the chef?

My son, K, has shown an interest in cooking over the years. We had a pumpkin festival at our church last year, and he made pumpkin bread from SCRATCH. He enjoyed the experience so much, that he has made the bread a couple of times since for various events.

K and I have spent a good deal of time over the last few months watching cooking shows together. Some of our mutual favorites have been Bravo's Top Chef, Fox's Hell's Kitchen, and the Food Network's Good Eats with Alton Brown. K and I have been talking about possibly doing some sort of culinary summer camp. I found one in VT that might be worthwhile.

However, a couple of nights ago we watched and episode of the Food Network's Unwrapped entitled Cooking with Kids. The show focused on kids who cook. The first story was about a teenage boy who began his love of cooking when he was about three years old. They mentioned that he had honed his skills with professional chefs over four summers at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island. K and I did some research and found that JWU offers week-long half-day camps for kids 9-12 and for teenagers. K is VERY interested in this program. In addition, JWU offers and actual Bachelor's degree in Culinary Arts.

We stopped by Borders this evening and picked up Becoming a Chef. K started reading it in the store and more so in the car. The book got him even more interested in JWU. It turns out that one of the chef's that K admires, Emeril Lagasse is an alumni of JWU's CA program.

While it's highly likely that K will change his life direction half a dozen times before he graduates from high school, it is very gratifying to see him think about his future and to research the possibilities.