Yes, Chef Culinary Camp
The Chopping Block, 4747 N Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL 60607
About
Yes, Chef! Culinary Camp includes spring baking sessions, fresh pasta-making and a pasta-making bootcamp, a weeklong summer culinary camp, a Thanksgiving dinner community cooking class, and a Holiday Baking Boot Camp. Campers take part in activities such as learning baking basics, baking holiday treats, making fresh pasta and complimentary sauces, learning about the history of pasta and regional pasta traditions, and learning the difference between types of flours. During the weeklong summer camp, campers cook a meal to eat alongside other campers each day and also cook something to bring home to their families, and the week ends with a graduation/mystery competition luncheon.
• Ages: 14–18 years old
• Schedule: One-day bootcamps and community classes typically run 11am–3pm, and the weeklong summer culinary camp runs 10am–4pm each day
• Price: There is zero cost to accepted students or their families.
The program is led by the Foundation for Culinary Arts, whose Executive Director is Catherine De Orio. Esteemed culinary instructors teach the camps, and The Chopping Block has a highly-trained staff. The Chopping Block has been in business for over 22 years in Chicago, and Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), a partner organization, was founded in 1990.
Yes, Chef! Culinary Camp is part of the Foundation for Culinary Arts’ mission to inspire and empower socially and economically disadvantaged students through educational programming and career advancement opportunities in the culinary industry. It is designed for exceptional Chicago area high school students from disinvested communities, and students currently enrolled in Chicago Public High School whose family income meets the CPS definition of economically disadvantaged may apply for a scholarship to attend. Preference for some offerings is given to prior approved Yes, Chef! Culinary Camp students.
Campers receive an equipment kit to keep practicing after camp, and participants in the pasta-making bootcamp leave with an essential pasta-making equipment kit. At the weeklong summer camp, campers end the week with an essential kitchen equipment kit, and the last day includes a graduation/mystery competition luncheon where one family member attends. Performance prizes are awarded daily during the weeklong camp, with an overall top prize of an iPad.
The Thanksgiving dinner community cooking class is an instructional demo-only class focused on brining, roasting, carving, and spatchcocking a turkey, as well as making sides to accompany a turkey dinner, and students leave with a frozen turkey and a Mariano’s gift card to purchase fixings. The Holiday Baking Boot Camp focuses on baking holiday treats and learning baking basics, ends with a buffet of baked goods, and each participant leaves with an essential kitchen equipment kit. In several one-day offerings, each student leaves with a Cooking Kit at the end of the day to use to cook with their families.
Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), which is connected to this work, is a workforce development nonprofit that provides underserved teens a pathway to success and provides culinary, job, and life skills to over 20,000 middle and high school students in seven regions across the United States. C-CAP starts in middle schools with culinary and wellness curriculum and, in high schools, provides an integrated approach to employment in the food sector through internships and apprenticeships, job shadows, mentorship, work opportunities, college and career advising, higher-education scholarships, and product and food donations. C-CAP states that it strives to help further food and social justice, as well as equity and inclusion, by providing tools for success.
Last updated April 18, 2026.
• Ages: 14–18 years old
• Schedule: One-day bootcamps and community classes typically run 11am–3pm, and the weeklong summer culinary camp runs 10am–4pm each day
• Price: There is zero cost to accepted students or their families.
The program is led by the Foundation for Culinary Arts, whose Executive Director is Catherine De Orio. Esteemed culinary instructors teach the camps, and The Chopping Block has a highly-trained staff. The Chopping Block has been in business for over 22 years in Chicago, and Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), a partner organization, was founded in 1990.
Yes, Chef! Culinary Camp is part of the Foundation for Culinary Arts’ mission to inspire and empower socially and economically disadvantaged students through educational programming and career advancement opportunities in the culinary industry. It is designed for exceptional Chicago area high school students from disinvested communities, and students currently enrolled in Chicago Public High School whose family income meets the CPS definition of economically disadvantaged may apply for a scholarship to attend. Preference for some offerings is given to prior approved Yes, Chef! Culinary Camp students.
Campers receive an equipment kit to keep practicing after camp, and participants in the pasta-making bootcamp leave with an essential pasta-making equipment kit. At the weeklong summer camp, campers end the week with an essential kitchen equipment kit, and the last day includes a graduation/mystery competition luncheon where one family member attends. Performance prizes are awarded daily during the weeklong camp, with an overall top prize of an iPad.
The Thanksgiving dinner community cooking class is an instructional demo-only class focused on brining, roasting, carving, and spatchcocking a turkey, as well as making sides to accompany a turkey dinner, and students leave with a frozen turkey and a Mariano’s gift card to purchase fixings. The Holiday Baking Boot Camp focuses on baking holiday treats and learning baking basics, ends with a buffet of baked goods, and each participant leaves with an essential kitchen equipment kit. In several one-day offerings, each student leaves with a Cooking Kit at the end of the day to use to cook with their families.
Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), which is connected to this work, is a workforce development nonprofit that provides underserved teens a pathway to success and provides culinary, job, and life skills to over 20,000 middle and high school students in seven regions across the United States. C-CAP starts in middle schools with culinary and wellness curriculum and, in high schools, provides an integrated approach to employment in the food sector through internships and apprenticeships, job shadows, mentorship, work opportunities, college and career advising, higher-education scholarships, and product and food donations. C-CAP states that it strives to help further food and social justice, as well as equity and inclusion, by providing tools for success.
Last updated April 18, 2026.
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