Rhonda Kave has a recipe to make middle-school math absolutely delicious.
With her new after-school workshop, Bean-to-Bar-to-Business, Kave has ignited 50 Queens middle schoolers’ passion for math and science through the magic of chocolate making.
Percentages and melting points become fascinating tools for getting a 50 percent milk-chocolate bar — created by the kids — just right.
Kave’s students, who celebrated their achievements this weekend at her Forsyth Street chocolate shop, join a growing cadre of New York City students learning science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, concepts in the kitchen.
STEM is a hot topic in NYC schools and nationwide as the US lags behind other countries in these subjects. STEM enrichment classes often focus on robots or coding, while nonprofits have typically worked to advance healthy eating options for kids.
Now local food-industry entrepreneurs, and even a former White House pastry chef, are proving that cooking is an ideal way to teach STEM in NYC.
Science-of-cooking classes for kids and teachers alike are bubbling up all over the city.
Bill Yosses, who has devoted himself to promoting food literacy since quitting his post in 2014 as the White House executive pastry chef, has taught about 40 local teachers at New York City Department of Education workshops.
Enrollment for summer cooking camps is up so dramatically that Queens-based Butter Beans Kitchen recently opened a second location to meet rising demand.
Cooking store Brooklyn Kitchen, which hosts free workshops for public-school students, and Taste Buds Kitchen in Chelsea, which offers science-of-cooking classes for a fee, are retooling their offerings for the age of STEM.
Taste Buds founder Jessi Walter Brelsford sees evidence of a sea change in an unexpected invitation to a public school STEM fair this spring.
“It’s funny — it used to be [just] science and tech vendors, and we’re coming in,” Brelsford said.
Kave knew her students were taking the lessons to heart when one stopped her on the school steps after class. He told her excitedly that he’d already sold the truffles they’d just made.
“We develop that entrepreneurial spirit,” said Kave.