Chef Karen Ricks, Wants You to Play with Your Food

Today is Monday and I have another Meltingpot Mom to introduce. I “met” international chef, Karen Ricks on the Interwebs. Our paths crossed in a few Facebook groups and on Instagram. It’s not hard to see why. Like me, she’s a Black woman married to white man. She loves travel, cooking and her son, of course. She’s an educator and, also like me, believes food is a gateway to cultural understanding. Karen is the founder and owner of an amazing culinary platform called, Our Kitchen Classroom.

I was thrilled Karen agreed to participate in my Meltingpot Monday spotlight series because it meant I got to learn even more about her fascinating life working, parenting and cooking around the world.

Meltingpot Community, meet Karen Ricks.

Karen Ricks: I am a goofy, fun-loving child in a grown up body! I’m a voracious reader with an enormous appetite for the longest novels, the most complex cookbooks, and all the inspirational biographies I can inhale. I’m an adrenaline-seeking adventurer who can often be spotted soaring way up high or splashing in a big blue body of water. I’m a culinary and educational explorer, studying the old-fashioned, playing with modern techniques, and asking ten million questions along the journey. I’m an unconventional conundrum.

KR: Our Kitchen Classroom is the location-independent business that grew out of the international Montessori school I founded in Japan back in 2011. During the six years I ran that brick-and-mortar business, I cooked regularly with the children and families in our community. Food preparation was so much bigger than just a little one-off fun activity to tie a few lessons together. Between the daily school snacks & lunches, the family dinners, the pop-up restaurant events, and feeding hundreds at international community celebrations, we were using food to explore languages, history, culture, and more!

When my family and I sold it all to move to Italy, many of our friends and relatives were curious about what I was learning in cooking school. They also wanted to know how we would continue to educate our son as we uprooted our lives and traveled halfway around the globe.

Our Kitchen Classroom is the vehicle that allowed my teaching to transition from inside the four walls of our schoolhouse to follow us in our nomadic Worldschooling adventures. It has been our online learning environment through 10 different countries on 4 different continents and over half a dozen different community languages over the last 3 years.

I write about the intersections of food & education. I conduct cooking classes in a variety of world cuisines and I lead culinary and cultural tours around the globe.

Basically, I’m on a mission to bring JOYFUL learning back into home kitchens everywhere! I teach busy moms to rediscover the fun AND the value of cooking with and for their children. And I do all this as the Head Chef at Our Kitchen Classroom.

KR: Working with children, especially my own son, definitely inspires the work that I do. I vividly remember the frustrations I felt as a fiercely self-sufficient child. I longed for the freedom & independence of adulthood.

The world is a very different place today than it was when I was a child. Unfortunately, I fear that many adult’s attitudes toward children and their treatment of them fails to address the fast-moving, technologically-driven future in which they are rapidly maturing.

Cooking is a way of connecting people face-to-face, without the constant distractions of flashing screens and beeping electronic notifications. It’s a process to which we can return daily that grounds us in the present while stimulating every single one of our senses. It remind us of our reliance upon the earth and it’s ever-changing seasons to nourish ourselves and our loved ones. Teaching parents to cook–and working with them to include even the youngest children–is a tangible demonstration of the most powerful & practical skills for independent living that we *must* pass on to future generations.

I stay inspired by continuing to meet new parents, teachers, and child carers who experience the same frustrations as the children with whom they find themselves butting heads. My work encourages them to step back from their expectations and see the urgent desires of the individual who does not yet exist, but is struggling mightily to do so. I am a passionate advocate for that oppressed child. I want to help him create the life and the world only he can envision! We build him up little by little every single day that we support and encourage him to take even the simplest of pantry ingredients and feed himself and those around him.

KR: Well, we certainly stand out as a multiracial family in Albania, and we don’t consider that a bad thing! From the moment my husband and I got engaged more than 20 years ago, we discussed how we might handle the extra attention we expected to receive moving through the United States as a couple. Those discussions only intensified as we left the States to live and work in Japan, and again as we prepared to welcome our son into the world. We faced a lot of open hostility and constant critical questioning in the early years of our marriage. By contrast, we’ve been met with more surprise & curiosity in other places around the world. People rarely – if ever – expect that we are a family, because we don’t “match” in the way they tend to expect. But our very presence as travelers in different countries is usually unexpected, too. We see it as an opportunity to smash the stereotypes that people have about us, our passport country, and the racial & cultural caricatures they’ve been taught.

KR: I am most proud of the constant growth & maturity I witness in my son, a.k.a Our Little Sous. He’s almost nine years old, and we constantly work together at Our Kitchen Classroom. When we began cooking together, he was an infant in a sling on my hip, reaching out and grasping a wooden spoon to help me stir something on the stove in our little kitchen in Japan. A few weeks ago, he was slicing & dicing right by my side as we conducted a cooking demonstration on Albanian television! I am in absolute awe of the things he is learning AND also teaching me every single day. I feel so incredibly privileged to be on this unbelievable educational adventure with him, to be able to share the knowledge from this dynamic partnership with other parents and families around the world! And I know that my clients feel the same way about their experiences with their own children, too, because they marvel at it as well! It’s incredibly humbling to have that kind of impact on people’s lives.

KR: My favorite food to cook would be whatever inspires the greatest creativity and outpouring of affection at the moment. It could be anything from Double Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies to the steak or pasta dinner my family enjoys on a random evening. Like food itself, my favorites and my reasoning are living things that are constantly growing, changing, evolving. There could be drastic differences from one day to the next, from one season to the next, from one country to the next. The availability of fresh, seasonal produce in a location dictates what I choose to make just as much as my personal cravings or the most recent culinary techniques I might be learning or sharing with my clients. I feel very strongly that food is an educational AND an emotional experience that’s richer when shared. My favorite thing to do isn’t just to bring dishes to people, but to unveil new ideas and perspectives in a very meaningful & memorable way.

KR: I think I would have to say Chili Garlic Ice Cream would be my favorite. It’s a delicious combination in an unexpected medium.
It takes flavors that I adore and turns them upside down in the most exciting way. It’s a spectacularly scrumptious surprise that startles you into questioning the rules and expectations you hold. Like me, Garlic Chili Ice cream isn’t for everyone. However, for those brave enough AND bold enough to open their minds to the possibility, it’s truly a revelation!

Thank you, Karen! I have to say, Chili Garlic Ice Cream does not sound like my cup of tea, but I’m fascinated by the idea and would definitely give it a try. As I expected, I’m also even more fascinated and amazed by the life you’re living and creating for yourself and your family. Brava!

Meltingpot Community, if you’d like to follow along on Karen’s culinary adventures or learn more about Our Kitchen Classroom, you can find her at any of the following online locations.