Curriculum-based cooking school for kids? You bet, and one is opening in Warner Robins
Daphne Register of Warner Robins is big on extra curricular activities.
Between them, her two young daughters have played soccer, taken tap and ballet, gymnastics, hip hop dance, and acrobatics and tumbling classes.
Register also encourages her daughters to enroll in STEM courses and camps. STEM is an approach to learning that integrates science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
She believes those activities “expose them to different things so that they can figure out in life what they want to do.”
When her youngest, Mckenzie, who’s now 9 and a fourth-grader at Lake Joy Elementary School, told her she wanted to learn how to cook as her extra curricular activity, Register started searching on the internet for cooking classes for kids.
She found Young Chefs Academy, a national cooking school franchise for children. The closest location was in Sandy Springs — more than a 1-½ hour drive one-way.
But Register didn’t hesitate. She signed McKenzie up and faithfully drove her back and forth.
Register was impressed with the curriculum-driven program. She asked her husband, Tarell, if this might be a good business opportunity for them
“I just started thinking, what would that look like here in Warner Robins? Cooking is a life skill,” she said.
Her husband told her to do her due diligence.
She did.
‘A good experience’
This summer, the Registers plan to open their own Young Chefs Academy franchise at 115 Margie Drive, Suite D, in the Jasmine Place retail center in Warner Robins.
“My main thing is providing a good experience for the kids,” Daphne Register said.
She’ll handle daily operations while her husband will handle the financial end of their business.
An entrepreneur at heart, Daphne Register already owns and solely operates iDAP Marketing. She plans scale back from offering full marketing services to consulting only.
She’ll also keep her part-time marketing and communications specialist job at Word In Season Ministries in Warner Robins.
Tarell Register, who served eight years in the U.S. Air Force, now works full-time in a civilian job as a transportation specialist for the 78th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Robins Air Force Base. In addition to handling the financing for their business, he’ll fill in where needed.
What to expect
At the Young Chefs Academy, children learn about food preparation, kitchen safety, proper food handling, cooking and baking techniques, presentation and table setting.
Classes at the Warner Robins location will be open to children age 4 through high school. Classes are geared toward age and skill level.
The weekly classes, which require a membership, are curriculum based and center around a monthly theme. There are three major divisions for the kids: kinder cooks, junior cooks and senior cooks.
Each child receives a chef jacket and a recipe notebook. They receive badges as they advance through the different skill levels and from white jacket to black jacket.
Other opportunities do not require a membership such as workshops that will be held on weekends and holidays. Examples include a cupcake workshop and a gingerbread house building workshop. Register said she also hopes to be open in time to offer afternoon camps in the summer.
The Young Chefs Academy also offers birthday party packages where your child and several of their friends might opt for a pizza party. The children work together to make a pizza from scratch to finish and then they get to eat it.
The cooking school for children will also offer “families in the kitchen,” where a family might learn a recipe together, and “young chefs @heart,” cooking classes for adults.
The new space
The Registers expect to pick up the keys to the new space Wednesday.
They’re in the process of getting bids from contractors to transform the space that formerly was Selfie Suite.
“I can really visualize it now,” Daphne Register said as she surveyed the large space recently.
McKenzie, and her sister, 10-year-old Raven, a fifth-grader at Lake Joy Elementary, are excited about participating in the kids cooking school, Register said.
For Register, the Young Chefs Academy is another step in achieving her dream of wanting to own multiple businesses and have multiple streams of income.
“The fact that this is becoming a reality is very exciting, and the fact that we’re doing it as a family is even more exciting,” she said. “It gives my daughters something to look forward to as they grow up.”
Based in Waco, Texas, Young Chefs Academy has more than 30 franchise locations across the nation, with the Warner Robins location among nine new stores announced by the company in December. For more information about the Warner Robins location, email Register at warnerrobinsga@youngchefsacademy.com.
This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 5:00 AM.