Originally appeared in West Ends Best Magazine
At the Young Chef’s Academy, tiny cooks wearing tiny aprons create mature dishes for the biggest of appetites. The school, located on John Rolfe Parkway, teaches little students their way around the brightly colored kitchen.
The original Young Chef’s Academy opened in Texas in 2003, and the idea of educating kids about cooking led to the opening of 163 franchises around the country. The founders of YCA, Julie Fabing Burleson & Suzy Vinson Nettles, created the school in order to educate kids about the significance of cooking in a safe environment that promotes discovery and creativity. The West End location was opened in October of 2006 by owners Carol Smith and Kristen Braia.
Children and teens ages 3-14 learn food preparation, kitchen safety, etiquette, and table setting while gaining self-confidence and having fun. Miniature chefs’ coats, oven mitts and chef hats hang in the entranceway and excited kids head to birthday parties, classes, camps and field trips at YCA.
According to Smith, the students enjoy cooking different, creative dishes that go beyond just baking cookies. The variety of foods created and tasted at the school range from Greek treats such as baklava and spinakopita to Southern side dishes like grits, sweet corn and miniature derby pies.
“We never force kids to try to new things,” says Smith. Often students enter a class scared of certain foods, but they leave thinking differently. Smith recalls students preferring tofu smoothies to regular smoothies, and a student who fell in love with broccoli for the first time after preparing it himself.
“The best is seeing the kids surprise themselves,” Smith says. “Most of them want to be here. It’s a great outlet for kids who may not excel at sports. It’s amazing how many kids come in here wanting to be chefs. They watch Rachel Ray and Emeril and they love that they’ve found a place where they can learn to do it.”
She explains that one exercise the children perform is creating a dish three different ways by leaving out a different, yet important, ingredient each time. They see the importance of each particular element of a recipe and what happens when it’s forgotten.
In the summer, “Camp Can-I-Cook” features cuisines and customs from seven distinct regions of the United States. Students prepare and taste Louisiana Cajun cooking, Maryland crab cakes and Chicago deep-dish pizzas. Workshops and classes are offered all summer long featuring Indian flat bread, blueberry tartlets and candy sushi. Classes, workshops and birthday parties range from an hour-and-a-half to two hours, and students always take the recipes home.
“After class, students often ask their parents to go straight to the grocery store to get the ingredients,” Smith says. “They can’t wait to make it at home.”

2230 John Rolf Parkway
804 360-9797
www.youngchefsacademy.com