On being a kid who loved to cook

I am teaching a really special class this coming Sunday afternoon called Kids Cooking! I have loved to cook since I was a little kid. Feeling empowered in the kitchen has made a big difference in my life. I am offering this class in hopes of sharing this feeling with young cooks.

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Here’s more about the class! We will be making:

• English Muffin Pizzas

• Homemade Ranch Dip (that we can dip cucumbers or whatever into)

• Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Bread

We will learn about flavors, safe chopping, and the magic of baking! All ages welcome (and only one ticket per device needed, so if a kid + a caregiver are attending together, no need to buy 2 tickets). Depending on age, experience + kitchen confidence, an adult might be needed to help (grocery shopping, turning on the oven, getting things in + out of the oven, slicing cucumbers, etc.). I will walk through every single step slowly and answer every question. This is going to be FUN!!!!! As always, if $ is a barrier, just let me know and we’ll sort something out.

→ → »»» SIGN UP HERE!!! ««« ← ← → → »»» CLASS FAQs HERE!!! ««« ← ←

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In preparing for this class, I’ve started thinking a lot about what drew me to the kitchen at such a young age, and also about the things that have kept me interested in cooking for decades.

Here I am circa 1993 or so in my family’s kitchen.

One of the questions I get asked most frequently is when I started cooking. And I always say “before I can remember.” I have no memory of not wanting to cook.

I think there are a lot of reasons. One is that cooking has an orderliness to it that I’ve always really liked. The order makes me feel calm and in control, which is something I’ve sought ever since I was a kid. Whether it’s the steps of a recipe or the outline of a menu, I have always been drawn to the organizing opportunities that come with food. I have been a list maker for just as long as I’ve been a cooking.

Cooking has also long nourished my creativity and imagination. But being interested in it meant I didn’t have to make believe, I could just make.

In fact, I opened my first “restaurant,” called Julia’s Place, in my family’s apartment when I was maybe five at the most. I used to hand out to menus to my parents and brother and take their orders. Want to see something pretty great? Here’s the menu!

It’s two pages in a plastic sleeve. The front features the name done in a collage reminiscent of a ransom note (!), the back has the menu printed on paper that already had vegetables printed on it. I remember COVETING that paper. I’ve had this menu framed above my desk for years. Some of my favorite things about it include the spelling of ‘Bagle” and “Potatos.” I also really love the inclusion of “Any Kind Sandwich” (so open!) and the fact that the lunch and dinner menus are the exact same, just in a slightly different order, with the exception of any kind of sandwich (lunch only) and “chicken” (only available for dinner). I don’t remember if we had a computer at home at that point, nor do I think I was able to type. I am sure one or both of my parents helped with the menu-making and I am just very grateful to them for honoring my interests.

“You helped us play,” my mom told me on the phone this afternoon when I called to tell her about what I was writing. “We were nourished by your play,” she said.

Looking at this menu now feels like seeing the beginning of a string that has been thread through my entire life. I still write menus for a living — see this post!

Cooking was such a great thing to be interested in at a young age because it brought other things I needed to learn to life. If I was having trouble with fractions in math class, I could imagine my measuring cups. When chemistry didn’t make sense, I thought of what happened when I mixed baking powder into a cake batter (and what happened when I forgot to do that). Cooking gave me something not just to learn about, but also to learn through.

Beyond these practical lessons, cooking has always had a big emotional pull. I’ve always loved knowing about the people who make the food I love and the food I want to try. I have always wanted to know how they learned to make it and who they make it for. Cooking, even when I was a kid, has helped me feel connected to so many other people and I will never cease to be amazed at how lovely that is.

Cooking has helped me feel incredibly adult, which I was very impatient to be when I was not yet an adult. I started my first “business,” Julia Turshen Catering, complete with business cards, at the age of thirteen, right after I started cooking Thanksgiving dinners for my entire family without any assistance. Here’s the card (contact info crossed out).

I might be a hoarder?

If a book mentioned what the characters were eating, that’s what I wrote my school papers about. All through high school and college, I wrote menus in the margins of my school notebooks. It was my favorite way to daydream. Those menus felt like little fantasies of the life I might one day lead. They allowed me to imagine a life beyond the insulation of school. Cooking, and learning about food, has always been my bridge to people and places outside of my bubble.

Thinking about all of this now, I realize cooking was a way for me to figure out who I wanted to be. I wanted to be someone who was capable of not just making a meal, but of building relationships with people I cared enough about to cook for. I wanted to be someone who could channel my often anxious energy into something grounded and tangible. I wanted to be someone who could be confident to go off track, to make a meal based on instinct, not instruction. I wanted to have enough experiences to build those instincts.

I am so glad I started so young. And I am so excited for Sunday. I can’t wait to cook with a bunch of young people, or anyone new to cooking for that matter. Cooking has made my life so full, so big, and so connected. I am so grateful I’ve been able to build a career sharing all of this with all of you. Thanks, as always, for being here.

xo, Julia