LKA Food Philosophy
more than just cooking Creating healthy eating habits to last a lifetime.
Our food philosophy is simple. We empower students with practical life skills and food literacy by using local, seasonal, and organic ingredients as much as possible.
Each season, we introduce a fresh batch of custom recipes so students get to cook something new in every class. Guided by Mother Nature, we teach students that nature provides exactly what our bodies need, exactly when we need it. Our skills-based curriculum teaches students how to prepare wholesome meals from scratch through hands-on cooking classes.
ingredients We strive to provide ingredients that are:
- Local — Using locally-grown products not only supports our surrounding communities but leaves less of a carbon footprint. Once produce is harvested it begins to lose nutrients, so using locally-grown food provides the most nutritional value.
- Seasonal – Food that is available to the consumer as soon as it is harvested. At Little Kitchen Academy we aim for our students to know the season by what is cooking in the kitchen.
- Organic – Food produced without using man-made inhibitors or enhancers. Non-GMO food that has not been modified or changed using scientific method.
The Little Kitchen Academy food philosophy encourages our students to plant, nurture, harvest and prepare produce, because we know that when we are active participants in our food choices, we will try them and, more often than not, ENJOY them!
Our Living Food Wall powered by Click & Grow has plants at different stages of growth so our students can observe, care for, and enjoy the literal ‘fruits of their labour!’
recipesAll our recipes are free of meat, poultry, seafood, and nuts.
Handling products such as raw meat or poultry requires more caution and care in the kitchen, especially with a large group of excited students. Students’ safety is one of our top priorities in class, and to eliminate the risks, we decided to keep our kitchen free of meat, poultry, seafood and nuts.
We do not identify or present labels for diets. Our job is to empower each student so they can decide what is best for them. When sitting at the community table, enjoying our food, we will ask leading questions like “what else would be good in this meal?” or “how could we change this to suit our tastes better?” This kind of conversation allows our students to share ways to add meats, poultry, seafood, and nuts to these meals when cooking at home.
The only allergen not welcome in Little Kitchen Academy is nuts. While we take every precaution possible to support all allergies, nut allergies can be airborne and simply unsafe.
We understand that there are more dietary needs/choices/preferences/trends than there are types of apples (and there are over 7500 varieties of apples)! We work with our students to give them the confidence and the skills to advocate for themselves on what is best for their bodies.
allergies A variety of choices to accommodate food allergies.
If our students need to make a recipe gluten-free, dairy-free, or substitute an ingredient or two because of an allergy or intolerance, we will make it happen! Understanding other people’s dietary restrictions creates empathy and connection.
Students at Little Kitchen Academy will learn to ask ‘what is in my food’, ‘where does it come from’, ‘how does it benefit my body’, and ‘how can I prepare it to make it delicious to me?’
We don’t give our children enough credit: their palates are remarkable; they just need a space to refine them and to understand what kind of flavors they do like, at their own pace and by their own discovery path.
Felicity Curin, Founder, President & COO
