Spring break for me usually consists of big trips
and swimming pools, but freshman year (last year), I didn't have anything
planned. My mom asked me how I felt about going on a Springboard school break
trip. At first I thought it wasn't for me, but then I remembered hearing about
the program during my summer at Camp Chi so I read about the activity
options. One of my favorite things to do
is cook and bake. I love making cupcakes, cookies, and other creations. Cooking
with new friends and having baking competitions sounded awesome- I signed up
for BreakAway: Master Chef immediately.
Fast forward to March when I got off the bus at
Camp Chi. We started by getting a tour of the Perlstein kitchen at Camp Chi and
meeting some of the kitchen staff. This
was a great way to get another perspective of how a kitchen works. After the
tour, our leader explained how we were going to be cooking many different things,
but first we needed to learn the basics. We started out with carrots, onions,
celery, and a chef's knife. By the end, we were chopping carrots into tiny
pieces and dicing onions with no problem. Later on, we were grateful to have Chef Stephanie Goldfarb give us some tips on how to prepare food (and eat it too!). She owns
a supper club in Chicago and explained how restaurants take a lot of work,
patience, and creativity to run.
These lessons were helpful in the big activity we
did on the last day. By that time, we had already made challah, knishes,
perfected our hummus skills, and learned to roll and stuff a perfect sushi
roll. But we were reminded that practice makes perfect, so much so that they
make TV shows out if it! We did an activity based on the Food Network show,
Chopped. We were split into teams and given some weird ingredients like root
beer, turkey, an orange, and an onion. As a team, we had to create an appetizer
and a main course, and as a group we made the dessert. I remember that my team
worked so hard to make a sautéed tomato, (pareve) cheese and onion pizza and a
seared turkey with orange root beer sauce. The hard work paid off, and we won
the competition! My favorite part of the activity was making a cake and
decorating it together as a group. We made some funny designs and ate a lot of
frosting.
My decision to participate in BreakAway: Master
Chef was one I will never regret. Improving my cooking and baking skills was so
great and getting to experience it with friends that I still keep in touch was
icing on the cake.
-Adina Grossman, 10th grade