The experiences that I hold dearest to me are the days spent at my Grandparents house. Gathering food with my Granddaddy and preparing food with Grandma Hazzie and my mom in the kitchen for our family meals planted the seed for the importance of sharing meals together. I would get up early with Grandaddy and go fishing in his motorboat. We’d stop on the way back to get fresh corn, then gather collard greens, tomatoes, and other vegetables out of their garden to hand off to preparers of the meal.
I would follow him down the steep wooden steps off the kitchen and down into the basement to be an extra set of hands to carry fruit preservatives for the homemade biscuits, and other jarred goods. He’d disappear behind the house with my dad to prepare the fish we caught, and I would stay in the kitchen to help prepare the meal with Grandma Hazzie and Momma.
I might have been around 9 or 10 and at that time, and not yet old enough to cook in Grandmas kitchen. I’d be the pea-snapper or corn hull-shucker with the other folks that weren’t ‘allowed’ to spin the spoon yet.
In those moments, I observed using all my senses. In the kitchen with my family, I can feel the love in the air, see the love poured into creating the meal. I can smell the labor of love; I hear love through laughter and even the mumbles of Grandma Hazzie after tasting a spoonful out the pot on the stove, then intimately having a discussion of what is missing while fumbling though spices in the cabinet. I witnessed the importance of making it just right. And then, after the food and hands that prepared the meal were blessed, platters of food were passed around the table. The taste of the food prepared with the spirit of love just tastes better.
I have learned so much, and I continue to learn so much from being in the kitchen. Life lessons are gained in all things surrounding the preparation of food. The beauty of it is that you’re learning but you don’t know you’re learning. Lessons in the kitchen applied can help us navigate through the world. It is important to me to continue passing the wisdom that I received.
I incorporate life lessons into cooking, as my family did. Baking requires detail and patience, and the final product visually represents one's efforts. By integrating small lessons, baking and cooking becomes an enriching experience where you constantly learn, improve, and overcome challenges, both in the kitchen and in life.
In baking and cooking with multiple kids in the kitchen, I encourage teamwork with individual responsibility. We bake as a team; meaning each person relies on the next person to do their individual job to produce the expected outcome. Navigating this way in the kitchen in a team effort provides the tools to apply in life.
"Whisking Wisdom" fosters a strong sense of community by bringing children together through the shared experience of cooking. In the kitchen, they collaborate, learn, and bond over creating meals.
Cooking offers more than just interconnection between people. Lessons learned from cooking with my family were applied to the teamwork framework in military food service. Being a part of a team that prepared breakfast, lunch, and dinner, every day of the week for hundreds of Service members compared nothing to the calmness of cooking at home with my family. However, the process within food preparation does not change – we work collectively to create a shared desired outcome.
When cooking at home, mistakes are easily forgiven and consumed. However, when preparing meals for hundreds of hungry people, such grace is not afforded, and without proper planning, minor oversights can lead to significant issues. Having been responsible for minor kitchen issues early in my Army career, I realized that detail planning was the key to executing tasks correctly on the first attempt. I have since applied this approach to various aspects of my life.
Generational wisdom is a bridge that connects the past with the present.
Generational wisdom is a bridge that connects the past with the present, providing a foundation of traditions that can guide and nurture the next generation. Unity, grace, and creativity are my family traditions that I think are important for young people to experience (learn). The experience of unity, grace, and creativity nurtures our authentic self and ignites the community spirit within each of us.
Creating a community through cooking
"Whisking Wisdom" fosters a strong sense of community by bringing children together through the shared experience of cooking. In the kitchen, they collaborate, learn, and bond over creating meals. One story that stands out is when two children, from different backgrounds, discovered they both loved the same dish. As they worked together to make the meal, they shared stories about their families' traditions and realized how much they had in common. The kitchen environment encouraged them to embrace their similarities, strengthening their connection and building lasting friendships while learning valuable life skills.
Cooking offers a therapeutic outlet for emotional and mental well-being by allowing me to focus on the present moment and create something beautiful with my hands. Baking something new is a space that I love to be in, especially if I am baking for someone else as a special request. The focus, attention to detail, and self-applied pressure to get it right is exciting. In this space, I find peace. Baking nurtures my spirit of challenging myself with a feeling of accomplishment. Challenging yourself is a healthy habit to form – and tastes pretty good the better you get at it.
Encouraging children to explore in the process of cooking allows space to create and to be creative with only one expectation – the journey must end with food being safe to eat. When we are exploring recipes in the kitchen, right and wrong do not exist. When right and wrong do not exist, the possibility is unlimited to what can be created. When the possibility is unlimited, the imagination is consumed with visualizing, planning, calculating, and recalculating. Then the thoughts and movements are fixed on the cooking experience. Cooking provides a setting were focusing on the present moment leads to concrete outcomes.
We celebrate diversity in the kitchen by exploring the world through people and the food they eat. We love celebrating each other's diverse cooking traditions to spark curiosity and appreciation for cultures we may not know personally. Take sweet potato pie, for example—it's a favorite in many cultures, but each place has its own twist. It’s a fun way to learn about cultures we may not be familiar with, and through cooking, we spark a curiosity and appreciation for the traditions of others, all while sharing and celebrating the flavors that make each culture unique.
From the Kitchen to Life
In the kitchen, we teach life skills like teamwork, resilience, and creativity. For example, one child who struggled with patience learned to persevere when their cookies were undercooked, using the experience as a chance to problem-solve and try again. Another child, initially shy about sharing ideas, gained confidence by suggesting a creative way to blend two different cookie batters, which led to a fun group decision. These kitchen lessons—working together, bouncing back from mistakes, and thinking creatively—help children apply these skills to everyday challenges, building confidence and resilience beyond the kitchen.
The Future of Cooking and Storytelling
The future of "Whisking Wisdom" is all about blending cooking, storytelling, and community.
I envision expanding the program to include virtual cooking circles, where kids from different backgrounds share their family recipes and traditions. combining food and storytelling, we can create a platform where future generations learn from each other, fostering empathy and cultural appreciation. As "Whisking Wisdom" grows, it will continue to unite communities through the power of shared meals and the stories they tell, building stronger connections and lifelong skills.
A Love Letter to Cooking
My favorite recipe is the one I have not yet made, the one that exists in the dreams of future meals, where flavors have not yet danced on my tongue. It is a recipe of possibility, a promise of love in the making. There is joy in the process of creation, a quiet thrill in the act of kneading, stirring, and tasting—transforming raw ingredients into something to be shared, something that nourishes not only the body but the heart. I cook, not to impress, but to give—to create food out of love for someone else, an offering wrapped in warmth and spice, a token of care that speaks louder than words.
When I thought I was molding you—molding the dough, shaping the sauce, perfecting the dish—I realized you were molding me. With every dish, I learned something new, not just about cooking, but about myself. The kitchen became a classroom, where patience, creativity, and grace were taught in the language of flour and heat. In the quiet moments, between the sizzle and the stir, I discovered that the true recipe wasn’t just about the ingredients; it was about the stories shared, the memories created, and the love passed from one plate to another. Cooking is not just an act—it is a way of becoming, a process of transformation that lingers long after the last bite.
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