Find a Camp
Jul 24, 2014 | By Troy Bridgeman
GUELPH — For many urban kids food comes from the fridge, or worse yet, a drive-thru window. But that is a narrow perception instructors at the Summer Chef School culinary day camp hope to broaden.
"Basically the concept behind it is to get kids familiar with food for multiple reasons," said chef Kyle Corbin. "It centres around knowing where your food comes from and building respect for the food you are eating and the people who grew it."
Corbin is the lead instructor for the Summer Chef School in Guelph, where kids are taught to prepare a variety of dishes from scratch using fresh and locally-sourced produce.
"The average age spread is 7 to 12, but we do have some participants as young as 5 and as old as 14," said Corbin. "We have certain weeks that are geared toward 11–14 year olds."
Restaurateur Bryan Izzard developed the concept in 2007.
"I had a restaurant in Kitchener called Artbar Creative Dining and Wines," said Izzard. "It was kind of a funky higher end restaurant located right inside the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery in the Centre In the Square."
The restaurant relied heavily on theatre patrons and that made it a challenge to operate between productions.
"In particular the summers were a challenge because the theatre went dark during the summers," said Izzard. "We had this empty space and I had all this talented staff working for me. We decided one year that we would put those two things together and try running a cooking class for kids."
The arrangement worked well until four years ago when the restaurant closed.
"The camp had grown into an entity of its own by that point in time and it was something that I valued enough that I wanted to keep it going even though I was closing the restaurant," he said. "We have been doing it now for eight years and it is very well established so, this year we decided to branch out into a few new communities."
He placed an online classified ad for chefs to teach at the new schools, but was doubtful any would be interested in the seasonal position.
"I was quite surprised by the quality of staff that I found," said Izzard. "When I interviewed Kyle I really got a great feeling that he got what the camp was all about and believed in a lot of the same things. I knew he was the kind of person who would spread the good word."
Corbin was born in Woodstock and studied at George Brown College in Toronto.
"I spent a lot of years working restaurants in Toronto. I worked for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment for a few years and was on the nutrition team for the Leafs," he said.
He also worked in the Platinum Lounge in the Air Canada Centre and in Stratford for a restaurant called Avoca. It was in Stratford that he met his wife Annie. They have two children Quincy, 5, and Violet, 2.
"We moved back to Toronto because I had a fair amount of opportunity there and when we got pregnant for Quincy we decided to move to Guelph," he said. "Green Table Foods is where I started here and then I helped open, and was the executive sous chef at, Buon Gusto up until three or four months ago."
For Corbin and Izzard the goal of the Summer Chef School goes beyond simply familiarizing kids with food.
"We try to incorporate lessons that promote an appreciation for the environment and the planet and how food can impact that and, of course, the health and nutrition aspect of it as well," said Izzard. "For the most part we get the kids excited about what they are cooking and the fact that they can create it and we sneak those other lessons in on them as we are going because it is a very salient way for them to learn."
Aside from Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo, there are schools operating in London/Dorchester, Stratford, Burlington and Hamilton.
Corbin splits his duties between a school in Oakville and the school in Guelph that operates out of Holy Rosary Hall on Emma Street.
Class themes, schedules and registration can be found on the school website.
"Bryan and I have been talking about seeing how far we can push Guelph," said Corbin. "We'd like to get into a whole summer program, March break and then get into doing after school programs and possibly doing work right in schools."
More Information
Summer Chef School
Culinary Day Camp
Established: 2007
Owner: Bryan Izzard
Lead instructor in Guelph: Kyle Corbin
519-504-2312
www.summerchefschool.com
