Boost Your Business with Fun & Interactive Kids Cooking Classes | Tips & Ideas

[catlwilles]

I've been thinking of offering some summer cooking classes for kids in hopes of boosting my business a little. I need some help with ideas of what people have done in the past. I don't want it to be a show, i'd prefer it to be more of a class. For those of you who've heard of this before, what ages do you suggest, how much money, what products do you give them, and do you do it as a progressive thing, or just a one-time only class? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[MandyK]

Do a search for kids in the files section and a bunch of great ideas will pop up for you!

 

[chefbritt]

I don't have any particular ideas about what to offer them, but I would say for age no younger than five. I teach three year olds, and the attention span and motor skills are just not there for cooking, especially in a classroom setting. I would say a great age is around 8 or 9. I would do it more than once, like maybe four sessions (once a week for a month.) As for the price, I would sit down and figure out the recipes first, because one thing I've learned quickly is that the ingredients add up to more than you think. Factor in what you're going to spend, and what, if anything you would like to make before setting a price for the class.

 

[MeesMom3]

I love kids shows! And I do them all the time. The last class I had was an Easter Eggstravaganza! Ok, so I'll give you an example of one of my kids shows and you can go from there. I usually set up cooking classes for 3 to 4 hours depending on what we are doing. For instance, we had a Thanksgiving Feast class in November that was 4 hours and the Easter class was 3.

My last kids show was a creepy crawly theme. So I planned the menu around that. I planned for Crazy Caterpillars found in the Let's Eat cbook and ladybug cakes made with the prep bowls.

We began this class at 11:00 a.m.
When my Jr. Chef's arrived, they made chef's hats out of poster board and a white plastic bag (too easy and cheap). They also decorated there own placemats (white construction paper, markers, and contact paper). Then, I did a brief introduction to the products we were using and how to safely handle them. Then we made our Crazy Caterpillars. We also made the tutti frutti smoothies to drink. After food preparation, it was time for lunch, so they ate their caterpillars with pretzels and of course, their smoothies. Once lunch was over, we played cooking tool bingo and they marked their cards with gummy worms of course. Once that was over, we began to talk about baking and safety around ovens, stoves etc...... So the Jr. Chefs split into teams to prepare the cake mixes in batter bowls. Then, they poured the batter into their own individual prepbowls. While they baked, we played pin the worm on the apple, and had a watermelon seed spitting contest (they loved this). Once the cakes were done, we pulled them out to cool and mixed our icing with the appropriate colors for ladybugs. We had a brief lesson is spreading icing and when that was over, the kids got to decorate their own ladybugs. They had a blast doing this. We took pictures! After all of our cooking was finished, we did a quick recap on kitchen safety. I printed some cute little certificates for each Jr. Chef for completing the class and presented it to them. Then it was time to go home, they kept their hats, placemats and I purchased them each a safe cutter all to take home. I emailed the parents the pictures.

For this class, I charged $20.00 for 3 1/2 hours. And at the end, when parents picked up, I set out the Let's Eat Cookbook and offered free shipping as the special for the day. I sold 13 I think and just combined them into one order so I covered the shipping.

I absolutely love doing kids shows. I've done Thanksgiving Feast, Christmas cookies, Easter and of course Creepy Crawlers, Hawaiian, and I am hosting my 2nd annual Kamp Khef Kids this summer! Please let me know if I can help with anything else

 

[MeesMom3]

I forgot, I offer it for 5 yr olds and up. The prices I charge depend on how detailed the class is. For instance, for my Kamp, I charged $60 for 3 days, but this got them the chef's hat and apron (I wish these were available), and the cookie making set. I probably should have charged more though, when you think about ingredients for snack, lunch, and dessert for 3 days, plus craft and game supplies, and the PC products they got, $60 was nothing.

I think these can generate more business AND keep lifelong customers. I think it's important to extend our customer service to a customers family. This should include their children!

 

[Chef_SJ]

I'm trying to set up pricing, recipes, and an outline for a 2 hour kid's cooking class. I'll post my materials when I have a draft. I'm thinking of having each class cost about $35, with about $30 of that coming back in product and $5 to cover ingredients. I'm thinking ages 7 and up, and 4-8 children per class. I might offer a choice of age ranges (and then my class would be appropriate for that range). What I'd really like is for a parent to set up the whole group (rather than picking specific dates for them to come to my house and having a random mix of kids). Then I'll have four themes they can choose from for the class, or they can sign up for a four-class "camp."

Well, those are my rambling beginning thoughts. I'm a new consultant, so I'm new to all of these business building ideas in general, but I'm a teacher with plenty of time for the summer, and I think this would be a fun way to conduct summer business!

 

[MeesMom3]

I'm trying to set up pricing, recipes, and an outline for a 2 hour kid's cooking class. I'll post my materials when I have a draft. I'm thinking of having each class cost about $35, with about $30 of that coming back in product and $5 to cover ingredients. I'm thinking ages 7 and up, and 4-8 children per class. I might offer a choice of age ranges (and then my class would be appropriate for that range). What I'd really like is for a parent to set up the whole group (rather than picking specific dates for them to come to my house and having a random mix of kids). Then I'll have four themes they can choose from for the class, or they can sign up for a four-class "camp."

Well, those are my rambling beginning thoughts. I'm a new consultant, so I'm new to all of these business building ideas in general, but I'm a teacher with plenty of time for the summer, and I think this would be a fun way to conduct summer business!

What will you be getting in product for the $30? Is it something for the kids to keep?

 

[Chef_SJ]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I'd pre-order the products upon their paid registration (submit it all as one show), and the kids would take home a selection of products that they used in the recipe. Like, maybe one themed class would be a Pizza Party. Then they'd get the small round stone for $15, the pizza cutter (parent supervision only!) for $8.75, and the pizza crust and roll mix for $6.50 (total $30.25 plus tax in my area comes to around $32). That's just an example, because in reality I'd probably avoid giving kids anything as sharp as the pizza cutter (but if it were a group of high schoolers, that would be okay).

 

[tlennhoff]

I'd make sure that you are charging enough - you don't want to be losing money on this.

Once you figure out what the recipes will be, price a selection of products that come to $25-30 and price out the recipes, and then set the price for the classes. Set the class cost based on the most expensive combo.

I would make sure to only select kid-friendly products unless you are working with teenagers.

You might also want to talk to the local brownie and girl scouts to see about doing pampered chef cooking shows to help earn their cooking badges and it could be done as a fundraiser for the troop - so that month the show would be a fundraiser instead of a cooking show.

For a pizza class: small round stone for $15, the miniserving spatula for $4.00 and the pizza crust and roll mix for $6.50 = 25.50

For a cookie making class: the baker's roller for $15.00 and decorator bottle set for $10.50 = $25.50

Baked pasta: small mix 'n scraper $11.00 and a samll oval baker for $18.25 = 29.25

Easter microwave cakes: small batter bowl $11.00, small spreader $4.00, and mix 'n scraper $13.00 = 28.00

 

[catlwilles]

Thanks for all the great ideas! I'm thinking I'll try a 3-day camp where they come for 2 hours each day and we'll do appetizers, main dishes, and desserts. The charge will be $50 and $10 will go for ingredients, about $35 will go for products, and the rest will cover any other costs. I'll probably type up a booklet type of thing that has a bunch of recipes and tips for them to use. For the products, I think I'll do one Prep Bowl, one Small Bamboo Spoon, Bar Board, My Safe Cutter, Mini Serving Spatula, Measuring Spoons, and a Twixit. I'll probably get some cheap dish towels and put it all together as a gift basket for them to take home after they use them for the three days. This gives them a lot of basic tools and if it goes over well, I can offer more specialized classes where they could add some Stoneware and other things.

Most of the dessert and appetizer recipes I looked at were around $10 for ingredients. I was thinking of doing their own Apple Berry Salsa or Hot Pizza Dip. Has anyone tried that in a Prep Bowl in the microwave? For dessert, individual Taffy Apple Pizza or Profiterole Puffs. I'll probably do a ring for the main dish.

I was also going to offer Free Shipping or a 10% discount for all the mom's if they'd like to order anything extra. Keep the ideas coming!

Does anybody have any fun food games that we could play during any down time?