“Oleina for Children. Cooking with Love”: a summer masterclass with curry and a French dessert

On 27 June, children supported by the Children of Heroes Fund gathered for another cooking masterclass with a chef from the Yevhen Chernukha Culinary School, as part of the “Oleina for Children. Cooking with Love” project.

This time the menu was bright and varied, in keeping with the season:

• vegetable curry;
• beef neck with celery in port;
• French tarte Tatin;
• sweet cherry and mint lemonade.

During the masterclass, the children did more than discover new flavours and techniques. They cooked together, talked, helped one another and learned to put dishes together themselves — dishes they can now make again at home, for themselves, their families and their friends.

That is the idea behind “Oleina for Children. Cooking with Love”: to use cooking together to create a space for conversation, new experiences and creativity, to help children pick up practical skills and find a simple pleasure — making something good with their own hands and sharing it with the people around them.

The summer holidays leave more room for gatherings like this. There is time to try what there was never time for before, to meet new people, to learn something new — and to take away not just a recipe but the experience that cooking together can be interesting, warm and genuinely bring people together.

Thank you to our long-standing partner Oleina, whose support has kept these cooking masterclasses running regularly for the third year now.