“Those fake TV people,” snarked Robert Irvine on Tuesday night at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, “they keep the pan moving and show you that the food browned. But they can’t brown anything if they are moving the pan! Leave it alone.”
In town for the inaugural program in the newly opened Anthony Fusco Auditorium at the area’s children’s hospital, Irvine doled out lesson after lesson about cooking, aimed at energizing kids to take a role in the kitchen. To a crowd of 200 patients and their families, Irvine’s animated style lit up the demonstration kitchen as the onlookers took in the schooling from the boisterous Food Network personality.
The Restaurant: Impossible star bounced around the newly opened atrium lobby in the hospital’s $270 million, five-story expansion. Lit more like a rock concert production than a cooking demonstration, the Fusco Auditorium is named for the local entrepreneur that assisted the expansion with a $5 million endowment. “This place is amazing,” said Irvine. “It is a hospital, but the thing that is different is that everybody is smiling. I am happy to be here,” he said of his appearance at the Wilmington, Del., institution. “These are special people that have a twinkle in their eye.”
The fervent celebrity chef launched into his hour-long demonstration with a boot to olive oil’s reputation. “It’s bitter,” his young volunteer told the crowd after an airplane landing-like delivery of a sample. Irvine explained that because kids have more tastebuds than grown-ups do, the flavor of grape seed oil is preferred along with the oil’s higher temperature threshold and resistance to imparting off flavors in dressings and sauteed dishes.
And the lessons continued. From a gentle jab at fellow TV celeb Emeril Lagasse’s exaggerated “Bam!” as a method to evenly disperse ingredients to the appeal of quinoa, the crowd rolled along with Irvine’s spitfire delivery. Using a volunteer from the audience to demonstrate the need to rest proteins after cooking, Irvine jovially demonstrated the “big muscles” of his enlisted young participant. Irvine went on to mobilize some of the patients’ parents to illustrate nutritional lessons. Salt came up as a talking point for the chef. “Use sea salt. Use kosher salt. Parents, table salt has silicone in it. The others are more potent, so we use less. Don’t use iodized salt.” He went on with salt’s discovery as a food additive as exhibited by apes rubbing against rocks and licking the residue.
Particularly poignant in the night’s culinary shenanigans, a trio of participants were asked to assist with plating a kale and quinoa salad and roasted turkey. Focusing on flavorful ingredients from the chef’s assembled arsenal, Irvine went on to explain the use of fresh herbs and rendering the most flavor without adding excessive fat. Irvine mingled among the crowd with a fresh thyme sample to illustrate his approach. In the audience, Crystal DiLuzio of Wilmington expressed her dislike for kale. Irvine seized the opportunity to share his treatment of the popular green. DiLuzio’s daughter, Toni, 13, “had a lot of OMG moments. I already have posted a picture of him and me on my Instagram.”
Jordan Miller, 16, was on stage testing the mettle of her culinary ability. “So much fun! I got to make it look good and everyone was clapping,” the excited volunteer said of her time with Irvine. The chef wrapped the evening with energetic enthusiasm for “cooking with kids. Get them to understand. Education is the answer. And make it a game. Try ingredients raw and cooked. Take [the kids] to the store.”
Recipes from the evening can be found at Nemours’ Kids Health site. Find Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children at 1600 Rockland Road, Wilmington, Del.; phone: (302) 651-4000.
View even more scenes from the Kids in Kitchen Cooking Demo.
- Photography: Jim Berman
