Chef’s Village for you and your kids

Thank you for coming to our Village. The site is built for young adults and also for parents to learn about food, cooking, baking, sustainability, and growth mindset. In this section you will find information, tools, and resources to help your kids gain confidence, skills, and pride, and you will learn how to help them, whether using this program or just making Sunday brunch.

How to support your child

The best way to support your kids is by encouraging them to have a growth mindset*. You may be familiar with this concept as you will find it being used and understood in more and more learning institutions. In short, many believe that a person is born with certain capabilities. They are good at music but bad at sports. They are bad at math and science but good at drawing. The truth is that anyone can not only learn any skill, but the act of working on a skill actually physically changes your brain and improves your ability to learn that skill. So if you’ve always been bad at math (or cooking) and you start working on it, you will not only get better, but it will get easier for you to learn more. People who apply this principle find that if they work hard at something they thought they would never be good at, they often surpass people who seem to be “a natural” at that same skill or activity.

There are many ways we can support our kids in learning and growing into their best selves. Sometimes it’s as simple as thinking about how you provide positive feedback. If you tell your child she is a natural at sports, that actually encourages a “fixed mindset” (boo!) and discourages learning — believe it or not.

Also, when you give feedback, be specific. Instead of, “Great job with those eggs!”, say, “These eggs are creamy and seasoned really well. I like how you cooked them gently so they didn’t get rubbery.”

Keep your eye on this section of the web site as we put together more comprehensive resources for you and your kids. This will help them not only with our program but in every aspect of their life, no matter what they want to do and learn.

* Carol Dweck’s research on the growth mindset concept is one of the fundamental pedagogical principles used at Chef’s Village. You can learn more about this concept by reading her book, Mindset. We will be giving free copies of this book to parents of our scholarship recipients along with a set of kitchen tools, such as an instant-read digital thermometer and digital kitchen scale.