Food Explorers
Bring Food Explorers to Your School or City

After-school clubs & summer camps

More Than Learning to Cook.

Cooking, baking and the food science behind it. Kids ages 5–17 make a real dish from scratch every session — on a curriculum written by a Registered Dietitian, so what they learn outlasts the meal.

Explore Summer Programs Bring Food Explorers to Your School
Small class sizes Background-checked instructors Food Handler Certified Fully insured Renowned Bay Area schools

Registering for a school club? Use the link your school sent you.

A boy in a Food Explorers apron grinning as he takes a forkful of the lasagna he cooked in class

Trusted since 2017

Schools Keep Asking Us Back.

Trusted

By renowned Bay Area schools

3,000+

Young chefs taught

2017

Running clubs since

  • The Harker School
  • Stratford Schools
  • BASIS Independent Fremont
  • German International School of Silicon Valley
  • Milpitas Christian School
  • Woodland School
  • Alpha School
  • Khan Lab School
  • Valley Christian School
  • Brave Christian School
  • City of San José
  • City of Milpitas
  • City of Fremont
  • City of Mountain View
  • Sunnyvale Community Center
  • Ohlone College
  • and more

From the people who book us

In Their Words.

“Her class has received excellent reviews in the satisfaction surveys sent to participating families, and our community is asking that we continue.”
John LaneDirector of Extended Care, Milpitas Christian SchoolPartner since 2017
“She has figured out how to combine healthful cooking with kid-friendly instruction — a program that parents enjoy almost as much as the students.”
AshleyProgram Manager, BASIS Independent Fremont

Two ways to explore

Choose Your Food Adventure

A student in a Food Explorers apron decorating the chocolate cake she baked with pomegranate seeds

After-School Clubs

A weekly cooking club run at your child's school, during the after-school hours they are already there.

How the clubs work
Five students in Food Explorers aprons laughing together, holding the bowls of food they cooked

Summer & Community Programs

Multi-day culinary adventures offered through local community centers and partner locations.

See dates and locations

In every session

What Kids Explore

Cook & Bake

Real recipes, real tools, real technique — measured, mixed and tasted by the kids themselves.

Explore Cultures

Dishes and ingredients from around the world, and the stories that travel with them.

Discover Food Science

Why dough rises, why butter browns, why lemon changes everything. Curiosity first, answers second.

Build Kitchen Confidence

Measuring, cleaning up after themselves, and the quiet pride of feeding someone something they made.

Safety

Yes, They Use Real Knives.

Here is exactly how we teach it — and what we have in place before a single child picks one up.

  • Close enough to step inClasses are kept small, so an instructor is always within reach — and nobody waits their turn to take part.
  • Knife skills by ageTools matched to the child — from crinkle cutters to a chef's knife, taught before it's used.
  • Heat is never unsupervisedStovetop and oven steps happen with an instructor at the child’s side, start to finish.
  • Allergy protocolCollected at registration, shared with instructors, substitutions planned in advance.
  • Trained before they teachEvery instructor is Food Handler Certified and works through the curriculum and its safety steps before running a session.
  • Insurance on fileCertificate of insurance sent to any partner school on request.

In our kitchens

Stir. Taste. Create. Discover.

A girl stirring a pan of black-eyed pea curry on the hob, wooden spatula in hand
Two girls holding up plates of the onigiri rice balls they shaped and wrapped
A girl cupping the beetroot patty she pressed together, hands stained pink
A boy carefully measuring a spoonful of oil beside the prepped peppers and spinach

Explore at home

Every Dish, and the Skill Behind It.

Browse what explorers have cooked — filtered by the knife skills, techniques and ingredients each session taught. Written up by Purvi after every club.

Open the Kitchen Library
  • SpotlightQuinoa
  • SpotlightCauliflower
  • SpotlightBlack chickpeas
  • SpotlightPickled daikon

Work with us

Programs Built Around Your Site

Schools

Our instructors run the whole club at your site — curriculum, ingredients, equipment and clean-up.

Bring Food Explorers to Your School

Community Centers

Add memorable culinary camps and youth programs to your seasonal community offerings.

Partner With Us
Purvi Shah, founder of Food Explorers and a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

The founder

A Dietitian Writes It. Trained Instructors Teach It.

Food Explorers began with a simple observation: kids who help make the food get curious about the food. Purvi Shah is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, and she writes every lesson our instructors teach — the recipe, the question behind it, and the safety steps around it. Our instructors are trained on that curriculum before they run a session, so a club at one school works the same way as a club across the county.

Meet Purvi

Next steps

Summer Adventures Are Open

New sessions are opening now. Find one near you and reserve your explorer's spot.

Explore Summer Programs Bring Food Explorers to Your School

Just have a question? Ask us anything.