Yesterday, KidzCruises reported on the three kids clubs on board Emerald Princess. While researching Shockwaves, the club for 8-12 year olds, we learned about a brilliant ‘behind the scenes’ program called Jr.CHEF@Sea.
The Jr.CHEF@Sea event is a hands-on food preparation workshop that is conducted in the ship’s galley with the Pastry Chef. The kids go ‘behind the scenes’ to learn how to decorate a cake or cupcakes professionally or make a fruit pizza.
Having gathered at the Shockwaves club room, the children (along with an adult if they want to attend) are led to one of the ship’s kitchens (galleys). This is a treat in itself as it’s usually an out of bounds area for passengers. Witnessing the vast scale of the food preparation and cooking areas are life-time memories on their own!
The Junior Chefs are given mini toques and aprons to wear. They get to keep these as a souvenir, which is a nice touch. The Pastry Chef demonstrates decorating cupcakes, a cake or fruit pizza – and then the children get to decorate their very own. In individual prep stations some children concentrate hard to replicate the Pastry Chef’s design … other’s adopt a ‘mad scientist’ approach and use every topping available! One thing is clear though; the children have a lot of fun 🙂
Once they’ve finished decorating, the children have their photo taken with their works of art. They are also awarded a special certificate of their culinary achievement from the Pastry Chef. Moreover, they get to choose whether their cake, cupcakes or fruit pizza is sent to their staterooms or to be presented after dinner that evening.
Jr.CHEF@Sea is available to children attending the Shockwaves kids club on board all Princess Cruises sailings. Parents are invited to attend the event with their children and they can also get involved to learn tips and techniques in baking. On certain sailings they often have ‘themed’ Jr.CHEF@Sea – like at Halloween where cupcakes are decorated with handmade spiders …
Jr.CHEF@Sea needs to be booked – act quickly though, as it’s very popular and numbers are limited. There is an additional charge for Jr.CHEF@Sea (currently approx. $25 per child, and this includes the apron, toque, certificate and cake). The event lasts 2-3 hours on average.
I know what my cooking-mad 8 year old son will want to do on his next cruise!
