vanilla sponge with fresh fruit
Food,  Review

Creating The Next Generation Of Culinary Pro’s One Game At A Time

I previously wrote a blog about my new wind-down routine where I mentioned that I sometimes play games to switch off. Funnily enough, between my search for content (for work), keeping up to date with the Covid world and my newfound love of games (they make me feel like a kid again which right now as I self isolate, is duly needed) I’ve found something that pairs beautifully with my love of food!

For those of you that don’t know my background, I started my career in food. My first business was my at-home bakery and my first jobs were in a dessert bar, an Indian restaurant and a café. People think hospitality is easy but out of all the jobs I’ve had (especially since graduating) it’s definitely been the hardest – saying that, they’ve also been some of my favourite jobs because not only do you learn about food but you also learn about people and the processes needed to keep a business afloat.

I came across Culinary Schools. They help aspiring chefs find a school and potentially a career path. They have cooking schools around the US and internationally – one of them being the Ballymaloe cookery school in Ireland who I’m very familiar with! I worked with their products in a previous job and particularly love the relish so it was a nice surprise to see them there as well as schools in Spain, Italy, Turkey, England and beyond!

The culinary school also offer games via Kids Food Games. The aim of the games are to help children get familiar with food, farming, cooking, culinary arts, restaurant business as a whole and other hospitality led careers. Although they’re mostly for kids, there are definitely games adults can play. I did also find that a lot of the stuff I take for granted like baking a cake which I could do with my eyes closed won’t be as straightforward to everyone – especially adults. I enjoyed the games that reminded me of the skill it takes to actually create something or run a restaurant.

There are games like Can I Eat It and Fruit Sorting which are definitely for kids.

Can I Eat It
Fruit Sorting

Bake a cake is more for kids but if you’re an adult watching over a child, it’s definitely one you can get involved in. It also made me crave cake so much I went for a coffee cake…

Bake A CAke

One of my favourites however was Find A Pair.

Find A Pair

I’ve always loved games like this and at the beginning, I thought it was very simplistic till I found myself shouting at the computer as the levels went on. I really enjoy this one because I find it helps my brain wake up so rather than playing it when I need to wind down, I now play it when I feel like I’m getting a mental block. It’s really funny how much it helps me push myself!

There are soooo many more games with some focusing on being the best employee, growing your own vegetables and more that are perfect for any sex and that I think will be great are helping kids become more curious around food. Either way, it’s a great way to get kids started before progressing to them actually being culinary wizards.

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