Summer workshop teaches teens healthy cooking

The program, hosted by the Wade Edwards Learning Lab, allows high school students to learn from Raleigh chefs.

Prepping fresh vegetables or making a dressing from scratch can be unfamiliar territory for some.

“We’re the generation that eats fast food and McDonald’s,” said Tom Gill, a senior at Broughton High School.

Students enrolled in the workshop get three hands-on demonstrations a week.

Savannah Thorne, a sophomore at Green Hope High School, recalled making a salad with grilled watermelon. “I never grilled watermelon before, so that was really cool,” she said.

Cooking is all about trial and error, Chef Arthur Gordon, the owner of Irregardless Café in Raleigh, said. Gordon was among the local chefs to teach the class.

“Every time you cook you have the opportunity to gain experience,” he said.

Thorne said the experience has inspired her.

“I’m not a very good cook. My dad does all the cooking for me, but I think I’m going to have to step in and try to help him out, if I can,” she said.

The students have also shadowed chefs from 18 Seaboard and Dos Taquitos.

The Wade Edwards Learning Lab is sponsored by the Wade Edwards Foundation. It was established in memory of the late son of former Sen. John Edwards.