Healthy cooking with a dash of 'Kumbaya'
Young chefs can whip up tasty and nutritious campsite fare at sleepover cooking classes.
By BETH N. GRAY, Times Correspondent
Published October 14, 2007
WEEKI WACHEE - Have spatula, will travel. That's the motto of chef Trish Posey.
Currently, Posey's culinary skills and kitchen utensils are taking aim at the Hernando County Christian Camp, off Shoal Line Boulevard, where she wants to teach camp cooking and healthy nutrition to kids from age 8 through teens.
"We will prepare dinner and breakfast," she said. "They're going to do it from A to Z. We'll put it in the ground - pork and beef and chicken - and do an underground cobbler, too."
A course will run from 4 p.m. on Fridays to about 11 a.m. on Saturdays. A cabin at the camp can accommodate 16 people. The only thing budding chefs need to bring is a sleeping bag for a bunk bed. The cost is $100 per youth. Age-appropriate classes for teens and those younger will be offered. Dates depend on sign-ups.
Posey, 52, has been cooking since age 7, when she would cut pasta dough with a ruler alongside her Sicilian grandmother. She is a veteran culinary coach, teacher and food preparer.
Most recently, the Weeki Wachee resident has been putting together classes at the University of Florida in Gainesville to teach healthy nutrition and cooking in a dormitory.
This summer, she did cooking with kids in their homes and hers.
"Lately I have found a need for the elderly and doing their entire week of meals for people who don't want to go into assisted living," she said.
Referring to Meals on Wheels, she said, "A lot don't want meals from the county, but want something more nutritional. I do that in their homes.
"I think people should eat healthy, but it should taste good and be pretty. That's one of the things I stress."
Chef Trish, as she is known, owned and operated a restaurant for 25 years, she said, then had a yogurt shop in Tampa, from which she offered customers a diet plan, recipes and a regular newsletter on good eating.
Posey also teaches cooking to special needs students at Central High School.
She is disappointed that she hasn't been able to launch cooking classes at Pasco-Hernando Community College. While she was willing to cart her kitchen implements and supplies to the college, she said, "They didn't want to make an investment to buy a stove."
"I have all my certifications and credentials to work with them," she said.
Her daughters will certify her teaching talents. Breeze, 18, likes to cook all the health foods, her mother said: soybean foods, rice products.
"She does meal planning for the week for her boyfriend in Gainesville," Posey said. "He eats better now."
Stormy, 16, often prepares her piece de resistance, ceviche, a marinated seafood dish.
Beth N. Gray can be reached at graybethn@earthlink.net.Fast facts
To learn more
For more information about camp cooking classes with chef Trish Posey, call her at 596-5175.