Restaurateur teaches kids cooking skills

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POUGHKEEPSIE – Local restaurant owner Carlos Wood is sharing his cooking skills with kids to keep them off the streets after school lets out.  Wood is the proprietor of Gennie’s Soul Food on Main Street and 25 kids between the ages of nine and 14 attend classes with him three days per week to learn the basics of food prep and cooking.

“This is my way of sharing my love of cooking with kids while teaching them and keeping them off of the streets,” said Wood during a fundraiser for “Gennie’s After-School Cooking Classes” on Sunday at Waryas Park.  The first thing the kids learn, according to Wood, is kitchen tool recognition followed by cleaning, cross-contamination avoidance, and then cooking.  “It’s important for kids to understand the basics before just cooking,” he said.

Wood’s students have gone on field trips to local restaurants including Juan Murphy’s, Amici’s, and the River Station to see how the kitchens operate.  After the trips, Wood encourages his students to try and re-create the dishes they saw prepared at the restaurants. 

To reward the kids for their hard work, Wood is organizing a class trip to Six Flags Great Adventure.  Sunday’s fundraiser helped offset the cost of the trip. 

Visitors to the Poughkeepsie waterfront had the chance to donate a few dollars to the cause and eat simple fare cooked by the kids.  Hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled corn, and chicken/waffle kabobs were very popular among those enjoying the sunny Sunday afternoon. 

Local chef Marco Incorvaia lent his expertise to the day by showing some of the students how to make and cook hamburgers on a flat-top grill.  Nine-year-old Tyjer Rudolph, a student of SFB Morse Elementary School, was responsible for cooking the hamburgers and enjoyed it.  “This is fun,” said Rudolph, who has been participating in the classes for about one month now.  “I’m learning a lot,” he said as he was practicing his spatula work with the burgers. Additional information on the cooking classes for kids can be obtained by stopping at Gennie’s located at 452 Main Street in Poughkeepsie.




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