Culinary club

In April, we had only one cooking club meeting because I was sick.
Out of all the children who come to our meetings, these were, it seemed, the last five who hadn’t cooked with me yet this year. Surprisingly, these kids weren’t begging me to make pizza. They didn’t seem worried about it at all — because for them, what mattered most was simply our company and our attention.

I especially grew fond of Kristina, a teenage girl around 15. I had talked with her before. She’s a beautiful girl with an equally beautiful heart. To be honest, I’m usually wary of good-looking children because they often use their appearance to get something. But this girl is an exception. She knows she’s beautiful, but she has a pure, unspoiled heart — and that’s what draws other people to her. The tougher kids might see her as naive, but to me, she’s special because of her desire to know God, her ability to give thanks for everything, her constant joy, her sincerity, and her kindness. Kristina made the pizza with special diligence and took responsibility for every cooking task I gave her.

Angelina made me laugh. She was the loudest, shouting that she could do everything and couldn’t wait to start slicing the ham. But of course, until I showed her how to do it properly, she struggled — the same thing happened with rolling out the dough. But in the end, she succeeded!

This time, there was a small incident: one boy cut his finger. Nothing serious — the wound was small, and my co-worker noticed it immediately and took him to the nurse’s office. But in that moment, it wasn’t easy, because I was left alone with the children while the two of them were gone. It’s important that while I’m showing and explaining something to one child, there is another adult watching over everyone else and helping with any difficulties that arise. This situation showed us that it’s better to have three adults present.

This was the last cooking session of the year. Glory to God for the opportunity to serve the children in every way we can. I believe that none of our time with them was wasted.

The culinary club has become almost every child’s dream at the Rudensk orphanage. When we meet, those who haven’t participated yet tearfully beg to be included in «making pizza,» and those who have already been ask to come again. Since there are so many children, I sometimes forget who has already had a turn, and some even manage to trick me. Fortunately, we have photo reports to help me keep track.
What’s more, there are children who never used to come to our meetings but now attend just for the chance to join the culinary club — that’s how desirable pizza-making has become.
For me, this is remarkable, because these days, children from well-off families are often hard to persuade to cook or help their parents with anything — I know this firsthand, since I have a teenage brother. Typical children would be surprised by the enthusiasm orphans have for cooking, while many orphans didn’t even know what mini-pizzas were.

As we did last month, we continue making mini-pizzas with the children. I’m especially encouraged by the fact that even though the dish hasn’t changed since last year, the children engage with completely different parts of the cooking process each time. On the other hand, some, like those who grated cheese last year, pick up the grater again this year and, already knowing what to do, get straight to work. This shows that it’s all worthwhile — that the children are genuinely learning, not just coming to have a fun time.

Something I found surprising was that the younger children turned out to be much more precise than the teenagers. You should have seen Sasha and Maxim finely chopping tomatoes into cubes — boys I never expected it from, and I was even nervous about giving them knives! Usually, it’s hard for the children to chop ingredients finely, and I often have to fix things afterward.

The most challenging part for the children is probably rolling out the dough, because it takes some physical effort. Since our time is limited, I teach them to roll it thin so the pizzas cook quickly. Of course, I help them with this process. But cutting out circles from the dough — everyone loves that, and often several kids jump in to help.

No matter how hard I try to buy just enough ingredients for five people, it’s simply impossible, so there are always leftovers that we don’t use for the pizzas. The children enjoy eating these leftovers with such delight. At our last session, a teenager named Igor simply mixed together the leftover chopped ham, tomatoes, and cheese, and all the kids ate the mix with spoons. This boy is so active that I can barely keep up with him — before you know it, he’s at the other end of the kitchen doing whatever comes to mind. That’s why I always have an assistant in the kitchen!

I’ve discovered that in the kitchen, the children seem to open up in a new way. We get a chance to see a different side of them: how careful they are, how patient, how capable they are of helping one another or, conversely, of asking for help. These sessions truly help us grow closer to them and serve as mentors even in everyday skills.
Every time I leave the orphanage, I think: how wonderful it is that we can give these children not just tasty food, but also attention, warmth, and belief in them. Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity — and for every child who looks forward to our next meeting.

This year brought some changes to how we run our culinary club in Rudensk. For reasons unknown to us, we are no longer allowed to cook in that wonderful spacious room we used last year. This time, the space we were given can only hold up to five people. And needless to say, it doesn’t have any of the kitchen utensils we need — things that were a real luxury in that big kitchen. Fortunately, I can bring everything from home.

We also weren’t allowed to cook anything other than pizza, so I had to get creative. Since our goal is to teach the kids basic skills like chopping, grating, baking, and using kitchen tools, I came up with an idea — instead of just making the same pizza, why not change everything about it? So now, instead of standard yeast dough, we use puff pastry. The kids cut out circles using a special cutter or just a regular cup, and instead of one big pizza, we make mini pizzas. For toppings, we used ham, tomatoes, tomato paste, and of course, lots of cheese.

Everything is learned by comparison — that’s true. But actually, I’m really grateful to God that we can still teach the kids to cook, even if just like this. I truly believe these skills will be useful to them, and not a single lesson will be wasted.

Since February was packed with activities, we only had culinary club twice.
The first time, we invited the middle-school-aged kids. Each of them needed to be shown how to cut ingredients into cubes — none of them had ever done that before. We even cut the cheese into cubes that first time, because we didn’t yet know we wouldn’t find a grater in that kitchen.

The most memorable moment from that session was when we discovered that the sink trap was broken — but only after the sink had already filled to the brim with water. One of the boys came over, unscrewed the trap from below, and placed a bucket under it. But the bucket wasn’t big enough to hold all the water, so it started spilling over the edges — and just like that, we had a small flood. Honestly, it was a crazy situation, and at first I was completely thrown off. But thankfully, Katya was with me — she just laughed it off, and that really encouraged me.

I really love how genuinely hard each child tries during the cooking process — they don’t just come to eat pizza. Through conversation, they open up and sometimes share their pain. Nikita, for example, told us that evening with tears in his eyes that they were planning to send him to a nursing home prematurely. We were shocked, because he seems fully capable of living independently. We prayed for him and encouraged him that nothing is impossible for God — He has the power to change the situation. Katya also encouraged him to pray and surrender it all into God’s hands.

The second time, we invited the older kids. Most of the steps were familiar to them, but that didn’t stop them from working diligently. Oddly enough, it seems their favorite task was spreading tomato sauce onto the dough circles:D What I love about working with puff pastry is that it bakes really quickly — so after just 10 minutes in the oven, the mini pizzas were ready, and the kids had time to sit down and enjoy their freshly baked, hot creations.

That day, I witnessed something interesting. Some boys called out to a girl named Masha and told her to wash the dishes — and she agreed. (Here I should mention that I always teach the kids to wash their own dishes and clean up after cooking.) When we had finished cooking and it was time to clean up, Masha volunteered to wash all the dishes. I told her that everyone washes their own. She got nervous and said, «But the boys told me to wash.» I firmly replied that today, I am responsible for them and I make the rules — and the rule is that everyone cleans up after themselves. This situation showed us that Masha is easily led, and it made us think that she might be easily controlled by those with stronger personalities.

I thank God that we have the opportunity — even in cramped conditions — to teach these kids independence and basic cooking skills. And I believe that despite the circumstances, the Lord is working in their hearts. I also pray that He would soften the administration’s hearts so that we can teach more children in better conditions — and maybe even cook other dishes too.

I think teaching children to cook was one of our team leaders’ best ideas. The main goal was to teach children to cook the simplest dishes that require a minimum of money and time and involve the easiest cooking processes. But while cooking we also make sure to talk with the children, speak to them about God, ask questions about themselves. We try to pay attention to each child, their safety and comfort which is important in any kitchen.

For several months we have been making pizza. We could only teach a maximum of 10 children at a time, so we invited groups of different ages to each lesson. The pizza was made with yeast dough, salami, cheese and ketchup. We divided the tasks among the children. Each of them did something. Someone grated cheese, others cut salami, others rolled out the dough etc. We showed them how to do each task because for many it was their first time.

We explained how to bake it and warned them not to touch the hot oven because it was unsafe. You should have seen how the children waited for the pizza! They waited impatiently, not taking their eyes off the oven. No one wanted to wait for the pizza to cool down.
It’s interesting that most children after getting several pieces took it to go and didn’t eat it on the spot. Even so, some of them shared with us which was very pleasant.

Certainly we taught children not only how to cook but how to clean up after themselves and wash dishes. I remember 17-year-old Arthur who did it really diligently. While I was distracted by the other kids, he had already washed the dishes for everyone. I was impressed.
You can be sure of the quality of that pizza because it was made not only with love but with a lot of cheese and salami so everyone enjoyed it!

I hope the children will remember these lessons in the future and really use this knowledge in their lives. I’d like to teach them more so they won’t feel helpless.