Apart from food journalism, there are many other things I am still involved in as a food lover. Three years ago I was working as an office manager, but I was also just baking, cooking and writing as a hobby. Somehow I felt that this was not enough for me anymore and I wanted to do it more seriously.
That's when I saw that they were advertising a summer camp where they would be cooking with children, among other activities. My imagination was totally sparked and I hoped that if I could put my own ideas into it, if I kept thinking about it, it could be a super far-reaching concept. And it was.
The GastroMini Children's Cooking School was born, which, in cooperation with cultural centres, public educational institutions, private individuals and individual companies, aims to provide children with complex practical knowledge about cooking and baking.
In addition to summer camps, we have a number of public events, showcases, record attempts and in-house company programmes behind us. Unfortunately, due to Covid 19, events have been on hiatus for a year. However, last year we successfully held several Kitchen Fairy Camps in accordance with the legislation in force. The programme is always held at a given location.
I've structured the theme so that we can buy from local producers as much as possible. We also visit the market and the butcher regularly. Every day, Gastromini offers a colourful but specifically food-related programme for the children involved.
I think it's important that the raw materials, vegetableskel, fruitskel, with meat, spicesto learn more about them in detail. Gain an insight into different food preparation techniques. We prepare breakfast, lunch and snack together every day.
Usually we start at 8:30 and finish at 16:00, experience over the years has shown that for an average group of 15 people this is enough for one day, on Wednesdays, so we always start from the bottom, because let's admit it, there is a lot of stimulation and they get tired, and my vocal cords start to give up the fight, but it's a good fatigue, so we soon get over it together, and I have made good friends with the Icelandic lichen.
We make the dough ourselves and buy fresh, but there are times when either the weather, time constraints or the children's needs and wishes make it a little easier for us to do our own thing.
It should be taken into account that the three courses, prepared with my help and guidance, take a lot of time and energy and are not torture, but an experience. Fortunately, solutions are already available that are excellent for precisely these situations. For example, a good quality Vienna sausage hot doggal I'll never touch a miss or a hamburgerrel, for which you can now order and buy premium quality meat scones.
We used to prepare in advance from frozen puff pastry delicious savoury pillows with salt, cheese and seeds with wild onion with cheese filling or just cocoa snails, depending on what the gang wants that day. Always preparing pancakes or gofri, I guess it's no big secret that we don't make the jam ourselves, but it's still a top favourite.
We usually make fresh lemonade with lemon, elderberries if we can get them, but we also regularly have juice and syrup, especially for lunch.
And the final chord of the week is ice cream, for which we whip up our own meringuet and frozen fruitsTop the dessert with.
So last year we were playing gastro activity board games with homemade cards rather than going to the store, I take advantage of home delivery in many cases now, I don't have to lug the youngsters around, I think ahead.
So I think a tiny bit of cheating is definitely allowed, common sense helps! It also leaves time for exercise and creative play. Jewellery made from dyed dry dough is very popular, as are line races like potato tossing or egg balancing. Batiking t-shirts with beetroot juice, bordering on the stars...
This is a snippet of my, or rather OUR, GastroMini story. I wish you a very Happy Children's Day from myself and Matusz Wild Zrt. on your behalf!
