One of the most important things kids learn in a cooking class is that you shouldn’t make judgments about foods before you taste them.

That was the lesson Bayard Taylor chefs learned in their second class when Tuna Pasta Salad was on the menu.

Fish is often a tough sell for students. Tell them they’re making a fish dish, and some will always say “I don’t eat fish” or “I don’t like fish.” Their opinions often come with frowns or wrinkled noses.

When we introduced our Week 2 meal, however, the young Bayard chefs were interested to learn that some recipes can make fish taste better than they expect — or not fishy at all.

That was certainly true of the Tuna Pasta recipe. It contained new and fresh ingredients that made it quite different from many tuna dishes, including scallions, fresh dill, cherry tomatoes, red pepper, Greek yogurt and frozen peas.

On top of that, the flaked white tuna was rinsed under water to remove any extra fishy smell.

With all those vegetables, it was a colorful meal, because “we want to make foods that look good as well as taste good,” Mr. Peter said.

Every semester cooking class features at least one fish recipe, because fish is packed with protein, vitamins and nutrients. Fish also includes omega-3 fatty acids, which keep the heart and brain healthy.

With all the vegetables, there was lots of chopping to do, and our chefs were eager to use large knives for the first time.

“All of us got to chop up stuff, and we learned different techniques for chopping,” Aubrey Brown said.

Aubrey and Yohana Almonte took care of the cherry tomatoes, while Nathan Sanchez and Glorielys Gonzalez handled the scallions (“they’re like green onions,” the class noted, correctly.)

Liam Ortiz Espiritu, meanwhile, expertly sliced the red pepper into strips and then cut it cross-wise to dice it.

While the chopping was going on, the pasta and frozen peas were bubbling along on our hot plate, and when they had come out and cooled everyone took a turn “tossing” the ingredients with two large spoons.

“It was fun, when we mixed it all together,” Yohana said.

And did this fish dish taste as they expected?

“Not,” Aubrey said, “but it was good.”

“I thought the pasta was going to be bad, but when I tasted it, it was good,” Nathan said. “I liked the tuna when I put salt on it. It tasted like something else.”

“It tasted for me a little bit like Alfredo,” Glorielys added. “It was creamy like Alfredo. I didn’t think I would really like it, but it was good. It tasted different than I thought it was going to.”

“The sauce was really good,” Liam said. “It smelled amazing.”

And what message would the class give friends and family about Tuna Pasta Salad?

“I would tell friends they should try it,” Glorielys said. “When you think of it, it sounds bad, but when you actually try it and give it a chance, it doesn’t taste bad after all.”

“Try it and you’ll like it,” Aubrey said.