Young entrepreneurs share their cooking skills

Five teens, including four members of Samaritan Ministries families, teamed up to write Chef Junior: 100 Super Delicious Recipes for Kids

'Chef Junior' review

A gathering of five families who have online businesses in 2016 led to a little entrepreneurial action for some of their children: the publication of the book Chef Junior: 100 Super Delicious Recipes by Kids for Kids in 2020.

“All the kids got to hang out together,” said Paul Kimball, one of the authors and chefs. “The five oldest kids from each family were into cooking and our families are kind of health-minded. We really enjoyed cooking together. We were like, ‘What else can we do with this?’”

The answer came to them: “We could write a cookbook.”

“All of our parents have a lot of connections because of their work online, so in a couple of months, we had some interest from publishers,” Paul said.

Besides Paul, three other members of Samaritan Ministries families were involved in the project: Abigail Langford, Katie Dessinger, and Anthony Spears. Also kicking in on the effort was their friend Will Bartlett.

Paul was only 11 at the time the idea was hatched, and Anthony said he was 9. Both had been cooking for a few years already, adapting favorite family recipes or creating their own.

“I always liked kind of changing things up, experimenting with different spices, trying out little alterations,” Anthony said.

That’s something he hopes cooks who use the book like, too.

“Kids love freedom, right, and not having to be totally reliant on their parents,” Anthony said. “If you can learn to cook and then apply the skills, you can make yourself a snack when your parents aren’t around to do that or are working or busy.”

An interest in cooking came naturally to Paul: His mom, Katie, created the Kitchen Stewardship program to help young cooks learn their way around a kitchen.

“It seemed fairly natural to like to cook,” Paul said. Yet, “coming up with the actual recipes definitely didn’t come easily for me.”

Just being committed to a project like Chef Junior at age 11 was difficult, he added.

“I remember it being a bit of a struggle to find the time to start making recipes,” he said. “Once you start developing one, you have to make it a bunch of times. I remember that being quite tough. I’m sure my cooking skills increased greatly during that time just because I had to do so much cooking.”

Anthony said that kind of experience is key to becoming a good cook at any age.

“The lesson that I took to heart was, ‘Don’t be afraid to fail,’” Anthony said. “You’re going to mess up. You’re going to burn a bunch of food. Just don’t be afraid to try new things and to mess it up and make something gross.”

He said he still tries out new meals “based on whatever we kind of have available locally and is in season.”

There are recipes they like in the book, though, both their own and others’.

Paul’s favorite of his own recipes is Margherita Pizza.

“I love experimenting with different kinds of toppings and just the flavors that you can put on that thing,” he said.

He also likes his own Cheeseburger Soup recipe—“a family favorite”—as well as Anthony’s Sweet Potato Fries and Abigail’s Banana Pancakes.

Of his own recipes, Anthony also likes Sweet Potato Fries. “When I was in the process of writing the book, we several years in a row had a garden and grew a couple hundred pounds of sweet potatoes,” he said.

Despite being published cooks and still cooking, food doesn’t loom large in Paul’s and Anthony’s futures beyond sustenance and helping with feeding their families. Anthony, who is now in his senior year of high school, is hoping to take a gap year while working as a beach lifeguard in his home state of Florida. Paul has started his own business called Totally Random Paul. While he’s focused on video editing right now, he’s open to other areas of opportunity.

But one thing’s certain for them and their fellow authors.

They’ll never go hungry.