The joy of teaching kids to cook is that you get to share their wonder and delight with all the things they are doing and tasting for the first time.

We made glazed salmon and steamed broccoli and carrots drizzled with a vinaigrette.

“I love how it comes off in strips,” said Joel Palillero as he was peeling the carrots.

“They look like little trees,” said Jizelle Santos as she was chopping the broccoli.

Gabriella Diaz measured the ingredients for the salmon glaze, and liked packing the brown sugar into the measuring cup; while Leilah Cruz cut the butter into cubes. “It’s squishing as I cut it,” Leilah said. “It’s starts melting in your hands.”

“Now it really melts fast,” said Leilah when they moved to the saute pan, and whisked the brown sugar, soy sauce and butter in the pan on the stove to make the glaze. “Oh it smells so good,” said Margie Hernandez. “It smells like teriyaki sauce!” said Leilah.

They all loved brushing the glaze on the salmon, especially Miguel Montero, who said art was his favorite class and this was just like painting. Leilah painted an extra layer of glaze: “I want these to be extra juicy,” she said.

As the salmon was coated and left to marinate, we asked the students if they understood what that meant.

“It’s when you soak something in a sauce, so it soaks up the flavor,” said Jizelle. Spot on Jizelle!

Once the salmon was in the oven, we turned out attention to the vegetables: the first step was bringing water to a boil. Margie was in charge of letting us know when the water was boiling. “Doesn’t it make bubbles when it boils?” she asked a few minutes later. “Look, it’s bubbling!”

The salmon came out of the oven and got another layer of glaze. The vinaigrette was drizzled onto the steamed veggies, and we were ready to eat.

“I want to make this with my Dad!” said Gabrielle. She and her Dad are the chefs in her family, she said. She brought her cookbook home and after reading all the recipes, he had only one question. “Where’s the rice and beans?”

We told Gabrielle, her Dad would have to share his recipe with us for a future class.

It was the first time Gabrielle had salmon. “I liked the salmon because it smelled wonderful”, she said.

It was also Margie’s first time trying salmon. “I really liked how greasy it was,” she said.

Jizelle wrote: “I thought I was going to hate it, but it turned out really good. “It was soft, moist, smooth and sweet.”

Joel wrote the salmon was “super delicious and fishy.”

The veggies were also popular, with all the kids asking for seconds, and wanting to bring home leftovers.

How great is that, trying something for the first time and finding you like something you didn’t expect.