For four weeks this past summer, 48 local children ages 11-13 were Livin’ La Vita Nova during the University of Delaware’s Culinary Camp, presented by the Department of Hospitality and Sport Business Management and Vita Nova restaurant.

Now in its second year, the sold-out camp ran from June 17 through July 19. Students were taught knife skills, safety and sanitation, as well as baking and global cuisines. The students worked with many pieces of commercial kitchen equipment including stand mixers, the grill, a stone hearth pizza oven, pasta roller and steam-injection oven. At the end of each week, the budding chefs prepared special showcase recipes to impress their friends and families with all they learned from the week.

“We were sold out for all four weeks with 48 students total (12 kids, ages 11-13, each week),” said Gretchen Sianni, who graduated from UD in 2012 with a bachelor of science degree in hotel, restaurant and institutional management and is now Vita Nova’s newest chef instructor. “We had many repeat students from last year, so they were able to build upon more skills from last summer.”

Some examples of items they made: individual pizzas, Indian butter chicken with garlic naan, lemon lime pound cake, macaroni and cheese, and the Vita-famous rosemary parmesan rolls.

The camp was covered by WDEL Radio.

For further information, please visit: https://www.wdel.com/news/video-cooking-up-something-delicious-at-ud-culinary-camp/article_8d0aa88c-4606-11ef-a60e-8f6c17a46ebc.html