On Their Front Burner: Cooking Classes for Kids

How can parents plant the seed of healthy eating in young children and keep it growing? Maybe if they prepare it themselves.

Enter AMG Catering and Events.

“We will be opening up a cooking school here for adults and children,” beamed AMG Catering owner and chef Alison Milwe Grace.

After a decade of talking about it, Grace and her best-friend and event planner Olivia Savarese decided to create a full scale teaching kitchen in the (located at 196 Danbury Road) and will offer cooking classes for kids.

Why? Because there was nothing like it around, they said.   

“There’s really no place for kids to come and learn to cook,” said Grace, who has been teaching adults how to cook in their own homes as part of her culinary company for decades.

“And if kids cook it, they’ll eat it,” added Savarese.

Cooking comes natural to these two: both Savarese and Grace are moms who often cook with their children together.

“We’ve been cooking for them since they could crack and egg,” said Savarese.

Savarese, who was a preschool teacher as well as an event planner, was born in Paris to a restaurateur father. Cooking has always been a favorite activity of hers, especially while spending time with her kids. Her enthusiasm for cooking and teaching made for an easy career change-of-direction.

“I found my two passions and we brought them together and that’s how we came up with this whole thing,” explained Savarese.

Lest anyone worry, their tried-and-true catering services won’t be going anywhere.

“We are a full-service catering company,” explained Grace, also a culinary instructor atin Westport.

“We do weddings, we do bat mitzvahs, we do corporate events. We do it all.” Bridgewater Capital, Stepping Stones Museum for Children, and the Wilton Cannon Grange are all clients of AMG Catering, she said.

In their catering business, Savarese and Grace attend events together. Savarese is there to oversee all of the needed components, such as the band and flowers, and to make sure all runs smoothly in conjunction with the food service. Grace prepares the food.

AMG also prepares food for all the major holidays including the upcoming holidays Rosh Hashanah and Thanksgiving. Feel free to have Grace prepare the food and drop it off—Grace said that her existing clients love to present the cuisine for guests as their own.

Kids won’t be the only ones who get to enjoy the new kitchen space. Soon adults will be able to sign up for ‘corporate team building’ and ‘girls night out’ events, according to the two best friends.

The duo is also hoping to offer family style dinners to go, Tuesday through Thursday nights, in the future.