2025 Summer Cooking Camps

One week camps: June 9th – July 25th

Morning only: 9:00 AM – 12:00 noon, or Full day: 9:00 AM to 3:00PM

Separate weeks & camps for ages 7 – 10 and 11 – 14

Sign your budding chef up for cooking camp over summer break at the Ohlsen Foods’ kitchen in Soquel (address in the footer below). We will be hosting three different themed sessions throughout June & July. Sessions are five days long. We offer a morning session, starting at 9:00AM and ending at 12:00PM, or your camper can stay for a full day from 9:00AM to 3:00PM. In both sessions, chefs will have the chance to enjoy the food that they are preparing for lunch. Full day sessions will include more recipes and activities, sometimes with the opportunity to take home creations. Each session theme will have one week for students between the ages of 7 – 10, and a second week for students between the ages of 11 – 14.

Session I - The Daily Dish!

Every day brings something new at The Daily Dish! In this exciting, hands-on cooking class, kids explore a different theme each day traveling the world through food, mastering kitchen basics, and discovering the joy of cooking from scratch. Young chefs will learn age-appropriate kitchen skills, simple techniques, and food safety while building confidence, creativity, and teamwork. From savory to sweet, classic to adventurous, each class ends with kids proudly enjoying what they’ve made. No experience needed—just curiosity and a love for food! 5 days, 3 or 6 hours / day

Session II - Play With Your Food!

Get ready for a day full of fun, flavor, and discovery in Play With Your Food!, a hands-on kids’ cooking class where creativity is encouraged and curiosity is celebrated. In the mornings, young chefs will roll up their sleeves and cook a variety of kid-friendly dishes from scratch. They’ll learn basic kitchen skills, practice teamwork, and explore new foods—all while making a delicious meal they’ll proudly enjoy for lunch together. In the afternoons, the kitchen turns into a lab! Kids will use everyday foods to explore exciting science experiments, discovering how food can fizz, stretch, change color, and more. Through playful experiments, they’ll learn simple science concepts in a fun, engaging way. Perfect for curious kids who love to cook, experiment, and get a little messy, Play With Your Food! is a full-day adventure that feeds both the body and the brain. 5 days, 3 or 6 hours / day

Session III - Around the World

Travel the world through your taste buds and get to know the cuisines that inspire the globe. We’ll explore dishes from Greece, Japan, Italy, Mexico and France during this week long camp. We will focus on cuisines and ingredients from these countries, while learning how to follow recipes, understand classic techniques, presentation, work cleanly and safely in the kitchen, and explore new foods and flavors. 5 days, 3 or 6 hours / day

The Details

Dress appropriately for cooking in a kitchen. This means:

• Long pants – covering all exposed skin on your legs
• Comfortable, closed toe shoes (with non-skid soles if possible) – no sandals or flip-flops
• Shirts with a short sleeve – no sleeveless tops
• Hair tie or hat/cap to hold your hair in place

Classes are limited to a maximum of 20 students to ensure an appropriate staff to student ratio (max 1:10). We have a no cellphone policy while classes are in session. Phones brought into the kitchen will be placed in a common area for collection at the end of class. A contact number will be provided if you need to reach your child in an emergency during class.

Lunch is included with the classes as part of your materials fee and will be a product of the lesson plan for the day. Please send a reusable water bottle with your child, we can refill it as needed throughout the day. We will set aside time during class for breaks.

Allergies – If your child has any food or contact allergies, please let us know before registering. We can hold your place and confirm that we are able to accommodate the allergy concern.

Payments & Cancellations – Payment for registration and materials fees is due upon registration. A service fee of 10% will be charged for cancellations received up to two weeks prior to the start of each camp. No refunds will be offered for cancellations within the two weeks before the start of camp through the end of camp. Refunds or make-up days are not offered for missed days in camp. Camp registration may optionally be transferred to another date, one time, based on availability. Transfers must be made more than two weeks prior to the original camp date or the camp date being transferred to.

While we would hate to cancel a camp, we reserve the right to do so if a camp has very low enrollment or other serious circumstances that warrant closure. If we do have to take that drastic measure, we will notify you as soon as possible and you will receive a refund of any unused camp days or offer priority transfers to another camp session.

About our Chef

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