East Lyme Kids Are Cooking With Gusto!

Watching Rita and Joe Palazzo teach cooking to the kids who signed up for East Lyme Youth Service Bureau's cooking class is a bit like watching a large family of children learning to make favorite family recipes in the kitchen with their grandparents. 

The eight Middle School students who signed up for the course giggle as they squash meat between their fingers to make meatballs and exchange knowing smiles as they watch Rita and Joe debate, as longtime married couples do, about whether it's time to stir the sauce yet.  

The dishes are mostly classic Italian and American favorites, all made from scratch. Last Saturday, sausage and meatballs with pasta, sauce, and fresh-baked rolls were on the menu.

The classes are held on Saturday mornings at the East Lyme Senior Center. Rita Palazzo has culinary institute training but, she said, at home her husband, Joe, does much of the cooking because he really loves to cook. Joe Palazzo really knows his way around the large commercial kitchen, because he prepares lunches at the Senior Center during the week. 

Most of the kids said they'd had cooking classes before at school and often cook at home but this course has introduced them to new dishes and improved their skills in the kitchen. For instance, they recently learned how to make a frittata, an egg based dish similar to a quiche.

"I didn't know what a frittata was," said 13-year-old Jaron Reed.

"I learned how to hold a knife properly," said Sean Demers, 12, demonstrating his newfound chopping prowess.

Life Lessons Around The Kitchen Table

Watching the class, however, it seems that the kids are learning more than that as they spend time together in the kitchen. As often happens when families gather together around a table to prepare and share a meal, the conversation flows easily from topic to topic. Last Saturday that ranged from whether they have too much homework to the merits of taking Latin.

Rita's ears prick up when she recognizes a "teaching moment," so when someone mentions bullying, she asks them how they handle it and when Yasmine El-Kattan explains that her religion doesn't allow her to eat pork, she emphasizes the importance of religious tolerance.  

So while the kids are learning to cook, Rita finds subtle ways to stir in a few life lessons along the way. And it all goes down as easily as the delicious pasta they take home with them at the end of the class.