Home    Views   April 2005

		Points of View Posted April 20, 2005 Guest Column © 2005 Malcolm Hudson. Photo © 2005 and courtesy The Abbey, Lake Linden. Published with Permission.

Cooking at The Abbey: "The Kids" 

By Malcolm Hudson

LAKE LINDEN -- I never thought I'd like it. Teaching kids, young ones at that. So when Mrs. Heide, Lake Linden Elementary teacher, inquired last fall if I'd like to teach one or two of her Great Explorations cooking classes some afternoon, as an afterthought, I said sure, why not? Might be fun, might not; and there was only one sure way to find out. The experience was indeed fun, invigorating as it was unexpected. They were very un-like adults. Whereas adults are generally satisfied watching a professional demo and will then go home and try the same thing and are more willing just to take notes than to take an active part, these children were all over it.

In his kitchen at The Abbey in Lake Linden, Chef Malcolm Hudson demonstrates "the miracle of the egg" to students from Mrs. Heide's Great Explorations program, Lake Linden Elementary School.  (Photo © 2005 and courtesy The Abbey.)

From day one it was, "Let me do that" or "I want to do it," "Let me try," "I can do that." Their infectious enthusiasm and intrepid spirit soon invaded the kitchen, setting me back on my heels for a moment. How beautiful the music sounded. Thus the first two encounters went well.

At the tail-end of this winter, Mrs. Heide asked me again to do a class. I said yes, volunteering to do the four classes that were left. Again it was the same response, even more so now that they had grown accustomed to me (not an easy feat). Genuine enthusiasm and a thirst to know again permeated the kitchen. How magnificent!

It was an opportunity not only to teach, but guide and yes, perhaps wean a child, or young adult away from the notion that everything should begin at the take-out window at McDo's. 

Though most will never choose cooking as a career, all will have profited by the experience of doing and knowing -- learning some of the critical elements of domestic independence (as well as being able to discern the difference between "oatmeal" and an "omelet"). Mastering the fundamentals of good cooking will spawn joy for a lifetime, placing one back closer to the hearth, the land and the family.

It has always been the young apprentice, just out of some culinary school, green, timid but malleable; someone I can teach, mould and push; someone to pass on the torch of cuisine, my craft, my art. Sometimes I succeed; often I do not. The passing of the torch has often been a lonely affair -- arduous and futile. Then the joy of a child comes along and another thought, a perfectly cogent thought, arrives: Why pass on just a torch when you could just as easily light a wildfire without the damage?

With CLK (Calumet-Laurium-Keweenaw) schools now sending two classes of students and Lake Linden-Hubbell sending the same, spring looks to be busy time for the "old geezer."

Could the next Carême or Escoffier be lurking in the background, in our midst waiting to be discovered? Only the Shadow knows.

Editor's Note: Guest author Malcolm Hudson, chef at The Abbey in Lake Linden, has been offering Saturday cooking seminars in April to adults in addition to his lessons for children. Saturday, April 23, is the last cooking class at The Abbey until next Fall. The lesson is from 12 noon to 4 p.m. for $40 per person: The Complete Brunch -- A full panoply of ideas and techniques for the morning hour. Special emphasis upon breakfast breads; beignets, brioche, Danish, crepes, blintzes, omelet soufflé, sauces and compotes. A bed and breakfast host's must do.

Enroll in person at the Abbey, 700 Calumet Street, Lake Linden, during normal waking hours. You may also enroll by emailing Malcolm at yloria@hotmail.com, or telephone 296-9478. 

To learn more about Malcolm Hudson and The Abbey (and to check out their menus for Friday night dinners) visit The Abbey Communale Web site.

Visit the Keweenaw Now discussion forums to comment on this article.

Note: Views expressed by our guest columnists are not necessarily the views of Keweenaw Now.