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Passion for Spices - Cooking School, Team Building & Organic Spices

31 Woodland Avenue
Summit, NJ, 07901
908-380-0644
Passion for Spices

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Passion for Spices - Cooking School, Team Building & Organic Spices

  • Our Story
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    • CEO May Fridel
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    • Team Passion
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    • About Our Cooking School
    • Adult Cooking Classes
    • Kids and Teens After School Program
    • Mommy and Me Cooking Program
    • Corporate Team Building
    • Private Cooking Events
    • Upcoming Special Event: Lunch and Learn with Transcendental Meditation
    • Virtual Cooking Classes: “Cook at Home”
  • Recipes & Blogs
    • Recipes
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Memories From Our 2022 Around the World Summer Cooking Camp

September 4, 2022 May Fridel

During these pandemic times, we are so happy that we could hold our 13th Annual Around the World Cooking Camp. We had the opportunity to do it outdoors as well as virtually, where all the kids learned and enjoyed the culinary journey. We are thrilled to provide a platform for our young generation to learn about food and culture, and provide a true culinary experience. As always, we were so happy to receive farm fresh and organic ingredients from our local vendors to be incorporated in our cooking camp.


Around the World

Italian: Where the kids learned how to make handmade pasta, and Focaccia bread during our workshop.


Mexico: The Children learned how to make classic Mexican dishes like Corn Tortillas for, tacos, along with fresh guacamole and salsa


China: where the campers learned how to how to prepare, General Tso’s chicken and fried rice, as well as Scallion pancakes during our workshop


France: Where the campers prepared French Pastries, like Crepes Normandy, Madeleines, and Pate Au Choux


India: Where the campers prepared Naan Bread, Spiced Turkey Meatballs, and a classic Cucumber Raita, and Samosa and Parathas during the workshop

Arts and Science

Breads: Where our Campers indulged in the science of baking, by making some classic cornbread, old fashioned scones, and some fruit jam accompaniments, as well as Foccacia bread and buttermilk biscuits during our workshop.

Pickles: Our campers educated themselves in the application of pickling, with bread and butter pickles and pickle red onions, as well as canning some peaches during our workshop.

Pies: Our Pie making class involved us making a pie dough, chicken pot pie, and apple dumplings, whilst putting together a peach gallate and a banana cream pie.

Cheese: The Campers cheese class was mainly using fondue, one cheese and another chocolate with fruits. The accompanying workshop included Pasta with ricotta cheese.

Noodles: Our Camper applied themselves in making noodles, from Oricherttie noodles and Chicken Yaki Soba noodles. The workshop included pici pasta with garlic sauce.

Farm to Table

Onions: Our campers tried themselves at making onions in French Onion south and Scallion Pancakes, while our workshop goers tired their hand at making a potato leek tart and a caramelized scallion dip.


Squash: Our campers made various configurations of squash in delectable ways, like a buttermilk squash salad and stuffed squash. Our workshop was about the creation of zucchini chocolate bread and mini pumpkin pie.


Herbs: our day about herbs had our campers prepare a whole roasted chicken with herbed potatoes. The workshop as well had other herbed dishes, like tabbouleh, mumahara, and hummus by the renowned Yotam Ottolenghi


Tomatoes: Our camper prepared NJ’s favorite vegetable, both a tomato tart, and Caprese salad. During our workshop, the campers also made sauces.

Fruits: The Seasonal fruits classes included a strawberry banana fruit smoothie, as well as Philadelphia style ice cream. The workshop as well included a peach crisp and a blueberry sorbet

Culinary Teen Competition

Soup: Our campers made a very well liked soup, Gazpacho for this event. The Teens also built their skills like knife skills and basic stock making.


Salads and Pita Bread: in the spirit of the name, campers prepared a full complement of starts, with pita bread, muhammara, and hummus.


Accompaniments: Campers produced Butternut Squash Ratatouille and Chicken Satay to accompany any main course


Main Course: Our campers prepared the savory Roasted Whole Chicken with Mashed Potatoes, fit for a king. The final day, we had our annual cook off, where the camper’s parents came to sample everything that the campers had made.


Tags cooking class, cooking school, after school, young chefs, youth cooking, cooking camp
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Happy July 4th 2022

July 3, 2022 May Fridel

The Passion for Spices™ team would like to wish everyone a happy and safe 4th of July weekend. Hope everyone is celebrating with family and friends with fun food and treats. Our small business, Passion For Spices™, is very grateful to showcase to our community the abundance of our local produce and sharing the knowledge of good food to the our community. We hope you remember to use some of our recipes, enjoy some delicious treats, and share them with your family and friends for cooking this season. Please enjoy this complimentary recipe from Passion for Spices™, our Plum Cobbler Tart, a traditional American treat incorporating local peaches sourced from NJ farms. We are grateful for our local farmers and the variety and quality of our seasonal produce, just in time for the 4th of July celebration.

Plum Cobbler Tart

We are looking forward to our annual summer camp, where we meet new young chefs and teach them to cook from scratch even more delicious dishes.

To Learn more about Passion For Spices™, click here for more of our blogs. To sign up for the Summer Camp, click here.

In Hearty, Holiday Tags holiday, healthy, flavorful, spices, easy, holiday season, 4th of July
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Passion For Spices™ Team is Gearing Up For our Annual Around The World Cooking Camp 2022

June 9, 2022 Guest User

We are thrilled to have our Annual Summer Camp for kids and teens in person for 2022. Passion for Spices™ Team will strictly be following the state guidelines along with our own protocols to maintain the health of our campers and the Passion for Spices™ Team. This is our 13th year of our Around the World Summer Camp. The Passion for Spices™ Team can’t wait to be with the campers and enjoy the culinary adventure.

Foods Of The World I: American RoadTrip
July 11-15

This year, we have introduced our new week, Foods of the World I: Roadtrip America, where the young chefs will explore different food and culture of different regions in the US. We will be introducing them to the New England, Pennsylvania Dutch, Cajun, Pacific Northwest, and Southwest food. Some of the highlights include the Cajun/Creole day, where the campers will be cooking Andouille Corn Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice, and Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce.

Foods of the World II: Around the World
July 18-22

The Passion for Spices Team is looking toforward to welcoming the campers to a fun culinary. The second week is our international Foods of the World Week, where the young chefs will be making stops all around the globe. This year, the culinary regions that the young chefs will experience are the Italian, Mexican, Chinese, French and Indian.

Arts & Science
July 25-29

The third week of our summer cooking camp is all about the art and science of the cooking process. Our chefs will be teaching basic cooking techniques, and the young chefs will get enhanced in their skills of making various dishes including pasta, baked goods, etc. This year we will be showcasing the art and science of cheese, breads, pickles, pies and noodles.

Farm To Table
August 1-5

For the Farm to Table week, we will be showcasing local and fresh seasonal food ingredients, and utilizing them in multiple recipes. The young chefs are introduced to various fruits and vegetables, and our recipes will enhance their culinary skills as well as get them used to a variety of foods in their diet. This year we will be featuring eggplants, tomatoes, squashes, and stone fruits to the young chefs. This year, we are thrilled to have the whole Farm to Table experience take place at Murph Farm. Each day the campers will be learning outdoor cooking methods and enjoying the abundance of the farm.

Culinary Teen Competition
August 8-12

For our Culinary Teen Competition, we put several teams of teens to the progressive culinary test! Our professional chefs will be working with each team everyday, and each team will learn new techniques, building their skills as they go. At the end, they will increase their skills in planning, preparing, creating and presenting a 3 course meal using mystery ingredients from our seasonal "market basket" along with open access to our "community pantry." Finished dishes will be judged on presentation, use of seasonal ingredients, technique, flavor development, and teamwork. Based on their performance, teams are awarded points, with each team receiving a daily score. On the final day, daily scores will be added together and whichever team has the most points wins!

As we showcase here, our young chefs ages vary from five to teen, and is organized in such a way that they learn at their appropriate levels. Our Passion for Spices™ team are well experienced professionals, who will be guiding and training the kids to get the best experience in this culinary journey.

All  of the ingredients used during the weeks of camp are organic, fresh, and non-processed. Each day we have a totally different theme, but all to show kids that their food can be delicious, healthy, and sustainably grown!

Check out the details of our Around the World Summer Camp below, including the camp brochure and registration page:

Young Kid’s MiniCamp Around the World

We have also introduced a new camp for young kids aged 7 to 10 as requested by popular demand. It will introduce kids to kitchen concepts as well as teach them how to cook dishes with proficiency.

register here (Kids and Teens)
Register Here (MiniCamp)
Tags cooking camp, cooking class, kids cooking class, passion for spices cooking camp, around the world camp, around the world cooking camp, summer cooking camp, summer camp
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Mother's Day Special: Spring Menu

May 5, 2022 May Fridel

Photo Credits: James Peterson

The Passion for Spices™ team would like to honor and celebrate mothers everywhere. Our “Cook at Home” is a great way to create memories with mom! The pandemic has made family gatherings even more meaningful and intimate. We cherish all these moments, looking back and realize that these are special moments in everyone’s life.

We would like to inspire you to cook seasonally with locally available ingredients. We are so grateful for the abundance of asparagus from the NJ farms. Our Passion for Spices test kitchen has been making various recipes using asparagus, like theAsparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto or the Cream Asparagus Soup With Pumpkin Seeds flavored with Garam Masala. We would like to share for this Mother’s Day a special recipe from our award winning Chef James Peterson, Asparagus with French sauce, listed below.

Please enjoy the recipe, Asparagus with French Sauce, compliments from Passion For Spices. Click here

For me, my mother was the center of our family, and I want to honor her memory. I was fortunate to have her as my mother and as well to be a mother myself to my son.

Passion for Spices sustainable methodology showcases the importance of Families Cooking Together and we are here to help you have you experience the joy of cooking with your entire family.

Compliments from Passion for Spices

To read more about our memories on Mother’s Day, click here for more of our blogs.

We have a perfect gift for mothers Day! Please click here to buy our gift cards!

In Hearty, Holiday Tags holiday, healthy, flavorful, spices, easy, holiday season, fathers day, Mothers Day
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A Sweet Passover & Easter Treat From The Malabar Coast of India

April 14, 2022 May Fridel

Traces of the Jewish Community in India can be tracked back nearly 3000 years ago when they landed on the pristine Malabar Coast of India. They were  sailors in the fleet of King Solomon sent to purchase spices, animals, and precious metals. 

The oldest known Jewish Colony is Bene Israel on the Malabar Coast. According to historical evidence,  this colony was formed by survivors of a ship wreck in the second century B.C..

A second group of  Jewish People are believed to have migrated to India around 70 A.D. after the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem.  This group came to be known as the Cochin Jews, as they landed in the Port of  Cranganore,  an ancient port near Cochin.

While religious practice  remained the same,  other customs merged with those of local traditions. Indo-Jewish flavorings give a glimpse  into this merge with dishes such as  molagachi (mahogany chicken and black pepper),  ellegal fish (spice rubbed fish with herb salsa) and coconut based deserts. The families strictly followed the Sabbath, its customs, and Kosher Laws. The men wore mundu (malabari sarong), while the women wore flowing silk saris with sparkling jewelry.

The Syrian Christians, better known as St. Thomas Christians, originates back to 52 CE. They celebrate Easter the traditional way, with food and rituals that has changed little over the centuries. There is a lot of similarities between both the Syrian Christian’s and the Cochin Jew’s food and overall practices during Easter and Passover, respectively.

Traditional Indo-Jewish Sweet Delicacy From the Malabar Coast

Spiced Coconut Rice Pudding

Makes 6 Servings

Procedure:

1. Pour coconut milk into a medium-sized heavy bottom saucepan. 

2. Rinse the rice and add it to the coconut milk, simmer over medium heat for about 20 minutes.

3. In a small pan, add the ghee, dried fruit, almonds, and cashews. Toast for 10 minutes on medium heat. 

4.  Now add the garam masala and the vanilla extract to the rice mixture. Stir well until it thickens.

5. Stir in the toasted nuts & the dried fruits.  Reserving some for the garnish.

6. Serve the coconut rice pudding in small cups or bowls and garnish with the nuts and the dried fruits.

 

 

 

Ingredients:

2 cups SoDelicious CoconutMilk Lite
1/3 cup basmati rice
1/2 tsp Kashmiri Garam Masala
1/4 cup dried cranberries and golden raisins
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup chopped cashews
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbs ghee for toasting the nuts and the dried
fruits

 

In Holiday Tags easter, passover, holiday season
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