Kitchen ABCs at a Madison Middle School

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The Millers are, however, lucky to be working in a receptive community. Madison is a town known for its progressive personality, and it’s home to an active local food scene, including the largest producer-only farmers market in the country. But drive down interstate 94 to Milwaukee, Miller says, and “it’s like a completely different scene.”

“But we’ve gotta start somewhere,” he adds. The chefs and educators behind C.H.O.W. measure their success in small ways. “By the end of the year we take them to the [farmers] market,” said Miller. “It’s always asparagus season by then. I’ll get asparagus and fresh cottage cheese, and they’ll just be out at market just dipping the asparagus right in there and eating it. In the beginning of the year, that’s not going to happen.”

Now in its third year, C.H.O.W. has grown beyond Sherman to include a program at Cherokee Middle School that brings in a rotating group of guest chefs. Peter Robertson, a local pasta maker, is a mainstay of that program, teaching a three-day class in ravioli making. While most kids love pasta, he said, very few have any idea how it gets into its box. “It’s like pulling the rabbit out of the hat.”

Miller’s tomato soup class has the same effect on some students, many of whom say they’ve made soup before, but only out of a can. Stirring a pot of almost-ready soup, a seventh grader named Josh describes the experience as “really exotic.” “It’s really strange to make different soup by adding actual ingredients,” he says. Josh and his teammates dish-up the hot broth and bump their bowls together in a toast to their good work. After taking a taste, Josh adds, “I like cooking. It’s awesome. It’s fun making meals instead of getting them in a can or a box and waiting 15 minutes for the microwave to heat up. Right?”

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