Chef Sean Chaney teamed up with Walk With Sally to offer a cooking lesson and an early lunch party at Hot’s Kitchen for more than 20 kids affected by cancer.
At the “Friendship in the Kitchen” event, the kids toured the kitchen with Chaney and learned about professional food preparation equipment and the day of a chef.
Surprise guest and professional photographer Bo Bridges gave the kids a quick photography lesson and let them shoot some photos.
The main event was a cooking tutorial by Chaney, in which the kids were taught hands-on how to cook two easy dishes for their families – garden fresh salad and shrimp pasta.
After a lunch of burgers and tacos, each child went home with a gift bag of ingredients and materials to prepare the meals at home, including kid-friendly cooking utensils from Kidding Around in the Kitchen.
Walk With Sally provides mentoring support programs and services to children with a family member who has cancer. The programs and services are free of charge and open to all children between 7 and 17. The organization aims to help children cope with the emotional trauma of a parent’s or sibling’s cancer (for more see walkwithsally.org).
“I’d say about 80 percent of the children here today have never learned how to cook or really set foot in a kitchen, so I believe today’s event was truly life-changing for them,” said Pamela Penson, the CEO and president of Walk With Sally. “These kids have been searching for a way to give back to their families who have been so affected by the loss of a loved one to cancer, so by enabling them to go home tonight and cook a meal for their parents is incredible.”
Chaney said it was “so fulfilling to be able to teach these kids to make an easy and healthy meal. The way they got so excited about the little things we take for granted, like setting the table, or helping clean up, was humbling to see.”
