Free culinary camp teaches Indy youth how to cook

INDIANAPOLIS — Chopping, sauteing, and serving. They are cooking skills kids are learning in the Plate it Up catering youth culinary camp.

Chef Felicia Grady is the host of the camp. Food is her passion, a passion she hopes will rub off on some of the kids she instructs.

"The children really need something to keep them motivated,” Chef Felicia Grady the Creator of Plate it up Catering Youth Culinary Camp said. “I like the fact that they are learning a life skill that can even help the parents out a little bit really. "

wrtv

There is no cost for chef Felicia Grady's expertise. She hopes she can inspire the next generation to pursue a career in the culinary field.

"There are not a lot of chefs of color here in Indianapolis,” Grady said. “There's not. I would love to see that happen becoming a chef. This is the beginning stages of them actually knowing what it takes to make some good food, some high-quality food."

wrtv

For some students, this camp helps them perfect the skill of cooking, something some of them already love.

"I am a sous chef to my aunt when we cook for like holidays,” Austen Preddie a soon to be 7 ^th grader said. “We both work together. So, while I am making the mac and cheese she is doing like the ribs or something, so we work together as a team trying to get that done."

For others, it could be a possibility.

wrtv

"I didn't really know how good I could cook until I went home after the first day of camp and showed my mom what we made and she really liked it,” Makenna Grene a soon to be 7 ^th grader said. “So she said I should keep going."

Regardless, Chef Grady hopes the kids take these skills from her kitchen and use them every day.

"The life skill of cooking and being able to be self-sufficient as well as take away the memories and the education and team building,” Grady said.

wrtv

After the camp is over, each kid gets a debit card they can use for back-to-school items. Chef Grady plans on hosting another camp from July 22nd to July 26th. That too will be free, for more details click here.

LATEST HEADLINES