Inquiring Chef Academy
Cooking Camps in Kansas City
Cook with Us!
Does your child love helping in the kitchen or are they ready to learn more? At Inquiring Chef Academy, kids from kindergarten to 5th grade gain hands-on cooking experience and build confidence in the kitchen.
No matter their age or prior experience, all of our students learn the fundamentals of cooking and baking, craft ways to present their creations, and work in small groups to prepare a variety of recipes.
Thanksgiving Camp – Sign Up Here
If a camp is sold out, click here to be added to the waitlist.
Meet Jess
All of our camps are taught by Jess Smith alongside a team of staff and counselors. Jess has been cooking professionally for 15 years. She served as chief recipe developer at Cook Smarts and has been featured in Raddish Kids, Parade, Hallmark, Honest Cooking, Livestrong, Self, Yahoo, NBC, HuffPost, and She Knows.
Jess has a Masters’ Degree in Education Policy and spent the early part of her career working in education. She is a proud mom to Molly and Clara (age 10) and June (age 6) who attend Academie Lafayette.
You can find Jess most days of the week sharing vegetable-forward recipes on Instagram. Her cookbook, Start with a Vegetable, is available everywhere books are sold.
Questions?
Contact Jess and the team at camp@inquiringchef.com.
FAQs
Camps are held in Westminster Hall at Second Presbyterian Church (318 E. 55th St. Kansas City, MO 64113).
Each of our camps host 36 kids. We have a ratio of 4:1 campers to staff.
Please note it in your registration form. If it is a severe allergy please reach out at camp@inquiringchef.com before registering so we can discuss if it is possible for us to offer a safe environment.
We often cook with flour, eggs, and dairy. We aren’t able to provide a gluten-free option at this time. All of our camps are nut-free, but we cannot guarantee that the spaces we use have not been exposed to potential allergens like nuts.
The cost of all of our cooking camps include everything your child will need while they are with us: snacks, lunches, and treats to bring home to share. All they need to bring each day is themselves!
At this time we do not offer extended hours. We hope to make them available in the future.
We are a zero-pressure environment and never pressure any of our campers to taste something they’re not ready to try. If your child is in a picky eating phase, they will still have fun learning new skills, handling and preparing a variety of foods, and making new friends.
All of our snacks and meals are served family-style so that our campers have plenty of choices and can choose what they want to eat.
If the cost of camp is prohibitive, contact Jess directly at jess@inquiringchef.com. We have scholarships available and do our best to make it possible for every child to attend.
We offer a refund for any cancellation as long as we are able to fill your spot with someone from the waitlist. Our classes often have a waitlist, so reach out to us at camp@inquiringchef.com to inquire.
Apply to be a Camp Counselor!
Camp is run by an enthusiastic team of counselors and staff. All counselors and staff are trained and complete a background check. If you are or know of someone who would be interested in working with Jess, please see here for more information.
