Autism Cooking School / Aspergers Cooking School
Our cooking school for people with Aspergers and other forms of Autism Spectrum Disorder began in 2002, in response to parents’ request for more support enabling them to keep their adult offspring at home as long as possible. A needs survey in the Hamilton, Ontario region in the 1990’s documented that many parents were in no hurry to find group homes for their family members who had Autism Spectrum Disorder. They preferred having them continue to live in the family home as long as possible, but needed support to be able to do that. Teaching the art of cooking to adults with autism has been our way of offering some of that support.
Cooking School
We use intensive teaching methods to raise our students’ cooking abilities to impressive levels. It is no exaggeration to say that our students learn to cook far better than members of the general population. They prepare meals that are on the high-end of home cooking, and they can display this skill wherever they reside—whether in the family home or in an assisted-living arrangement. Some of our students have even found work preparing food in restaurants.
The service model engendering this success is different than what’s usually offered in adult services. We employ a one-on-one teacher-to-student ratio. Our teachers (or cooking coaches, as we call them) all have had prior, verifiably successful experience working with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder before they join us. We give them additional training specific to our cooking program, and provide opportunities to attend courses at the Geneva Centre in Toronto, a top-notch educator in all aspects of Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Beyond teaching our students how to cook really well, we use non-coercive strategies to help them overcome unhealthy eating habits.
Our cooking classes always culminate in shared meals, where conversation and social skills are cultivated.
News of our cooking school has spread fast. Because we operate on a modest scale (aiming to teach small numbers of students well, rather than many students thinly), we don’t have enough space for everyone who’d like to come to our school. What is the solution to the high demand for our service? Simple: a cookbook of our specially-designed recipes to help people everywhere learn to cook well, whether they have autism or any other challenging condition.
In the cookbook we’ve also set out step by step how to run cooking classes just like ours. Now anyone with a kitchen and the determination to help people with autism have better lives can teach them how to cook really well.
Read more about Coach in the Kitchen to see how it can help you.
Watch our video below to see “Coach in the Kitchen” in action!