TEACHING KIDS THEIR WAY AROUND A KITCHEN

NEWTON Valerie Perry was having a little trouble breaking into herchocolate flan. With its thick disk of hardened caramel on top, shewasn't sure how to tackle it but her 11-year-old daughter, Jasmine,had no such uncertainties. Jasmine reached over to her mother'splate, gave the top a thwack with the back of her spoon, andshattered the caramel.

A student in Kids Can Cook, Jasmine has been learning her wayaround a kitchen. And last week at the Metropolitan Club, she startedlearning her way around a restaurant, front and back of the housealike.

It was the first time the nonprofit program, which offers classesto more than 100 students a year, has partnered with a restaurant tohelp further broaden the students' exposure to the world of cooking.A special three-part course taught six students chosen for theirwinning essays to prepare a three-course meal up to restaurantstandards. The Met's executive chef, Jeff Fournier, taught the grouphow to make grilled Romaine salad with shrimp, fresh canneloni withmarinara sauce, and chocolate tres leches flan with anise cookies.

Then, last Friday, Perry and the other students Elizabeth Reardon,Kemi Pham, Kayla Baquerizo, Berdine Viaud, and Dalena Ngo helped prepsome of the ingredients in the Met's kitchen. Then they left the restof the work to the Met's staff while they dined in a private roomwith family members and patrons (the latter paid $100 for theprivilege) for a finale meal to benefit the program.

The initial plans called for the students to actually put thedishes together during dinner service, but that changed by the timethe night rolled around. "On a Friday night, we just can't have themon the line," Fournier said. "Actually, some of them probably couldhave handled it," but he didn't want to disrupt service for the otherdiners. "And we want the kids to be able to sit with their parentsand enjoy the night."

The exposure to the kitchen made an impression nonetheless. "Atfirst I thought the kitchen wouldn't be that busy," said Perry, astudent at Mother Caroline Academy and Education Center inDorchester. "But you look around and all these people are runningaround and cooking."

Perry has gone through the first level of the Kids Can Cookprogram, which each week teaches children fundamentals, then sendsthem home with a meal that serves six to eight people.

The program wins big points with parents. Valerie Perry would seta candlelit table every week to showcase her daughter's cooking. Thetraining has already reaped other benefits. The Sunday of the recentblizzard, Jasmine said, she set to baking a cake from a mix, "but wedidn't have any frosting, so I went on the Internet and found arecipe and learned how to make it so we wouldn't have to go to thestore."

The vanilla was so dark, the frosting turned out beige, whichJasmine didn't appreciate. "It was OK," she said.

"Well, it wasn't that fluffy perfect white," her mother said, "butit sure tasted good."

Her father, Ronald, beamed and interjected: "And it was fromscratch."