Cooking Up Something Fresh: Teaching Culinary Literacy at Home

Cooking with the library?

Yes, you heard that right! Public libraries are constantly seeking new ways to reach their communities, and the quickest way into a patron’s heart just may be through their stomach. Even in the middle of the pandemic, many of these programs can continue virtually online.

The Free Library of Philadelphia defines Culinary Literacy as “both as learning how to cook and learning literacy through cooking. There are multiple literacies we teach through the context of cooking: math, reading, writing, science, technology, health and nutrition, cultural, historical, and more.”

While food-based library events are not entirely new, the concept of culinary literacy is gaining ground due to increased awareness of preventable health issues, food trends, sustainability, and community food insecurity. In a 2004 article, library consultant Guy Robertson offers a glimpse of the basic planning and marketing steps to keep in mind when offering a food-based event, things like: picking a date and time when target demographic patrons are likely to attend, inviting a well-known presenter, registering participants in advance, setting up spaces and signage, and of course, troubleshooting problems before the big event.

A live cooking event will appeal to a broad audience.

One way to expand a program’s reach and attract media attention to culinary events is through local community collaborations. The Free Library suggests conducting an environmental scan of food-related programs in the community, seeking organizations whose goals align well with the library’s. Organizations that focus on food access, food justice, community gardens, nutrition, and health are all great potential partners. Speak with elected community representatives to see what funding or grants are available for health-focused community programming. For those wishing to explore a buffet of knowledge about culinary library programs, the book Gather ’Round the Table: Food Literacy Programs, Resources, and Ideas for Libraries by Hillary Dodge is a valuable resource (see full resource list at end of article).

Over the past four weeks, I have had the pleasure of experiencing a public library culinary literacy event from the comfort of my own home via Zoom! The program Spring Vegetables A-Z was put on by my local library, and I found it to be a wonderful and highly valuable experience (another online cooking demo I attended recently had a cover charge of $30). Every Thursday afternoon, participants learned how to cook a new dish from home. So, what made this program work?

A whole foods vegetable platter with roasted red pepper and kale-parsley-mint dipping sauces

This particular program had:

Plant-based recipes only (which means that everyone from a vegan like me to someone who hasn’t even seen a vegetable in days can participate!)
An engaging, charismatic community chef leading the experience (who had previously taught in-person cooking events at the library pre-pandemic)
A series of guest chefs (making it fun each week to learn new recipes, tips, and tricks from various presenters)
Recipes (and Zoom link) sent out in advance via e-mail
Incentives to cook along. Participants who sent in photos of their finished meals were entered each week to win a prize (including a set of wooden spoons, fair trade kitchen accessories, and a grocery store gift card for the final week)
Last but certainly not least…free food to cook with! Through a partnership with a new local food co-op, and a grant obtained through a local elected representative, participants who registered in advance for the class were given the option to meet the lead chef at the neighborhood store to pick up a reusable bag filled with ingredients and printed recipes for cooking along, the day before the online demo. How awesome is that? Having picked up ingredient bags for each class myself, I can tell you that it was awe-some!

Haul alert! I picked up all of the ingredients to make guest Chef Tanesha’s sweet potato tacos (and a strawberry and citrus spinach salad) the day before the virtual cooking class.

During this cooking series, I learned how to do so many things in the kitchen I’d never known how to do! I learned:

How to char a red pepper over an open stove flame (hot stuff!)
How to properly roast garlic (and tomatoes) to make a savory dipping sauce
How to properly cut all kinds of things, from jalapeno peppers (avoid touching those seeds!) to diagonally sliced carrot pieces for added presentation and flair
How to make delicious food without relying on oil or salt (the lead chef uses a lot of health-conscious recipes like those found in Rip Esselstyn’s Engine 2 Diet cookbook)
How to get excited about cooking! Because who doesn’t need an injection of new and exciting recipes into their usual lineup?

I learned so much that I have already brought into my own everyday cooking. Comments in the Zoom chat showed that I was not alone in learning a lot of really interesting and useful information. I think that every participant was able to get something out of this program. Program feedback was solicited after each event through a link to a Google Forms survey to evaluate the program and to inform future events.

Some things to keep in mind when planning a program like this include:

Explain from the outset how the program will run (this is a good time to troubleshoot any Zoom issues and make sure all participants are muted, and explain how your Q&A process will work).
Make sure all recipes are provided for the cooking being demonstrated that day (and make sure participants who have picked up free food have everything they will need for the upcoming class).
Excellent communication with your head community chef and guest chefs to establish common goals for program success.
Program length and time. This program was promptly started on Zoom at 1:00pm, and promptly ended at 2:00pm, and included plenty of time for participants to ask questions. Whatever your time frame, be sure to manage presenter’s time realistically and accordingly.

Resources for planning your next culinary literacy event:

Free Library of Philadelphia Culinary Literacy Center

Cooking the Books: Food Programs in Libraries

Gather ’Round the Table: Food Literacy Programs, Resources, and Ideas for Libraries by Hillary Dodge

Five Minute Librarian’s Delicious Library Programs

Program Model: Cook the Book Club

Cooking at the Library by Nadine Kramarz (article, Public Libraries Online)

Congregating in the Kitchen by Miranda Doran-Myers (article, American Libraries Magazine)