Since its establishment in October 2007 by award-winning chef/author, Lisa Holmes, The Children's Culinary Academy has become the area's premier cooking school for children. Throughout the academic year, CCA offers recurring multi-week classes, birthday parties, special events classes, and even themed classes for school vacations and holidays.



Additionally, CCA hosts a fun-filled and educational summer program that embraces gardening as an exciting and essential part of the cooking process.



Children learn basic cooking and knife skills, culinary math, and nutrition in a fun-filled, safety-focused environment. Every class for the younger children (ages 3 to 9) includes a mini cookbook featuring the day’s recipes, a special segment (like “This Week’s Spice Rack”) that highlights a certain food and explains some of the history and cultural applications for that item. Older kids (ages 10 to 15) create full meals and are encouraged to experiment. They also receive a printed booklet of recipes for each class.



CCA’s mission is to reintroduce cooking to children and families and to promote a healthier approach to eating. Children are encouraged to experiment with new foods, to look in their neighborhoods (and even their back yards!) for local ingredients, to understand where their food comes from (strawberries come from plants, not plastic packages!), and to adopt a more healthful, wholesome approach to eating. Kids today are at greater risk than in any previous generation for health problems associated with poor diets. In Holmes’ kitchen food is fun and cooking is both art and pleasure. Her goal is to ignite a passion in kids about food that will ultimately become the gift of a healthier future.