Comfort Food and New Flavors: Summer Cooking at Elmhurst United
At Elmhurst United Middle School in Oakland, our summer culinary program put full meals on the menu. Through our BACR partnership, Digital Dreamers brought five weeks of cooking that paired familiar comfort food with a range of flavors and food traditions.
Five weeks, five reasons to get cooking
Tomato bisque with grilled cheese started with a classic pairing. Honey chipotle beef burritos brought a sweet-and-spicy combination, while mango crepe rolls made room for a fruit-filled dessert. Spaghetti carbonara and Honduran baleadas rounded out a menu with plenty of variety.
That variety mattered to the teaching. Each dish called for its own preparation and assembly, giving us different ways to work through organizing ingredients, following a recipe, and bringing a meal together. A soup-and-sandwich pairing asks for a different approach than a filled burrito or crepe. The menu kept everyday cooking at the center without making every class feel the same.
Culinary also gives food traditions a practical place in a lesson: a named dish, ingredients to work with, and a recipe to explore. At Elmhurst, the summer menu offered an entry point into that wider world of cooking while staying connected to meals students could recognize and make. With Elmhurst and BACR, we brought a summer enrichment experience with both substance and flavor.