Education

Peninsula students’ ‘Cooking Crew’ going strong even as need for remote meetups is waning

Mason Litts’ grilled cheese sandwiches were feeling the heat.

“My first two turned out to be black as ever, but third time, I think I got this,” Litts gamely told his fellow chefs during a recent meeting of the Cooking Crew, a twice-monthly virtual cooking club hosted by Key Peninsula Middle School teachers.

The club, established in 2020, was an after-school bright spot amid grinding isolation at the height of the pandemic. The students loved it so much, they formed their own club. Language Arts teacher Kate Schrock started the gathering, formerly known as Cooking with Schrock, shortly after schools closed in March 2020 with the rapid spread of COVID-19.

“I started doing a virtual meetup after school hours so kids could get contact with each other,” Schrock said. “I was struggling, seeing my students struggle with not having outside contact. I mean, out here on the Key Peninsula everyone was really limited. And I missed them and I knew they were missing their friends.”

Mason Litts, a seventh-grader at Key Peninsula Middle School, prepares nachos with help from his dad, Dave West. Litts is part of the Cooking Crew, a twice-monthly virtual cooking club hosted by teachers Kate Schrock and Leah Smith. The club was founded as a social outlet for students during the pandemic and has continued as a sanctioned ASB activity. Photo courtesy of Kathy West

Since her students were then studying ancient Greece, Schrock decided to have them make tzatziki, a tangy yogurt and cucumber dip. She in her kitchen, the students in theirs, churned out the perfect after-school snack. And so, the meetup became a cooking class.

Schrock was later joined by fellow teacher Leah Smith, “my partner in crime.” Smith is great at finding kid-friendly recipes and is meticulous about food preparation, where Schrock is more apt to “sometimes go big.”

“So, we’re a great balance to each other,” Schrock said.

Smith also helped out with technology, fielding questions from kids in the chat window and troubleshooting connectivity. Although internet reliability is notorious out on the Key Peninsula, students who needed it were given personal hot spots by Peninsula School District for school work. So, getting online wasn’t a roadblock.

Over time, siblings and friends joined, and Schrock opened the group to all students in the district. The group continued by popular demand, even after students returned to schools full time this fall. Schrock walked them through the process of applying to become a district-sanctioned ASB club.

Students receive recipes and an ingredient list before the club meets. They’ve made ravioli, meatloaf, enchiladas, quiche, “you know, anything that the kids could make to help out with family dinners, or snack times for families,” Schrock said.

Mason Litts, a seventh-grader at Key Peninsula Middle School, prepares nachos for his family’s dinner. Photo courtesy of Kathy West

Thumbprint cookies, chicken chile with Fritos and Texas toast personal pizza are some of the standouts for Carson Shipman, a seventh-grader at Key Peninsula Middle School who joined the group after hearing about it through a survey. Shipman hadn’t done much cooking before, he said, but, “I didn’t really have anything better to do, so I thought I could try it.”

His older brother Dylan, now at Peninsula High, also took part. Their mom, Jamie Shipman, said the club filled a gap for her boys.

“It was a nice non-classroom activity to do that kind of made it feel a little more normal,” she said. “You know, like, even though it was over the computer, they were still hanging out.”

The club has received donations from community groups such as the Gig Harbor Morning Rotary Club, the Longbranch Foundation and the Kiwanis Club of Gig Harbor. Donations go toward cooking kits with special tools and supplies for the kids.

“One time, they made little mini corndog muffin things, and so they gave each kid a muffin tin,” Jamie Shipman said. “When they were in online school, it was really fun because they looked forward to driving through and picking up their special little cooking kits.”

More exotic recipes like Japanese stir-fry have led to a run on harder-to-find ingredients at the Key Center Food Market.

During the recent Cooking Crew session, Schrock showed students how to substitute mayonnaise for butter when making grilled cheese, which sparked a big debate over which was best.

“What other things could you put in the sandwich?” Schrock asked. “I like potato chips. They’re crunchy. You could maybe, like, put ham, lunch meat and chips and cheese.”

One of the kids told a funny story about when his pet bird was sitting on his shoulder and stole a bite of his grilled cheese.

“These are the best,” Schrock said, “You can make these, you guys, like midwinter break is coming up, so you can help out and maybe make lunch one day for you and your siblings.”

Litts, the third youngest of six kids at home, enjoys baking cookies and making the occasional meal for his large family, like the pan of nachos he turned out earlier this week with help from dad Dave West.

Litts, now in seventh grade, already had a knack for cooking when he joined the group last year. In fourth grade, he took second place for his turkey enchiladas in his school’s junior chef competition. He loves cooking shows, and his favorite Christmas presents were a Bundt cake pan and a cutting board handmade by his dad.

Mason Litts shared a selfie with his grilled cheese sandwich at a meeting of the Cooking Crew on Feb. 9. Photo courtesy of Mason Litts

Mom Kathy West said the Cooking Crew has been nothing but positive for the whole family.

“I think it really helped Mason, who has always really loved helping out in the kitchen, to feel more confident about that, seeing his peers also enjoying the same kind of things that he does,” she said. “He’s definitely learned to not put so much salt in things, which we’re all grateful for. … And he’s definitely branching out and trying new things.”

Litts said Schrock makes the club fun.

“She’s pretty cool,” he said. “She’s very flexible with things and very nice.”

Dave West appreciates that Litts is learning basic life skills through the club.

“I think it gives the kids the ability to be creative, because they’re making stuff that I never would have thought about but it’s simple,” he said. “I’m a firm believer with kids, they just need to get used to the oven, using utensils. And with any chef, whether you’re Gordon Ramsay or Wolfgang Puck, that takes practice.”

Back in the Cooking Crew, students had pulled their sandwiches, gooey with melting cheese, out of the pan.

“Oh, you guys got happy faces, all munchin’,” Schrock said. “Make sure you send pictures before you eat the whole thing.”

Litts snapped a selfie with sandwich for the group’s shared site, and this one was a masterpiece.

“Third time’s a charm,” he said.