It's prep time in the kitchen at Via Farina in the city's little Italy neighborhood. But today, before dinner service, they're getting ready for a special group of chefs, 9 and 10-year-olds.
Last Monday and this Monday the restaurant is partnering with the Omaha nonprofit the Tyrome Williams foundation, which works to get kids hands on experience for STEM subject lessons.
"Finding projects that they can actually see what it is that you're talking about and actually experiencing it. They're more likely to understand that information that you're providing but also to understand what it is you're talking about," founder Tyrome Williams said.
The idea here is to learn about food science. Topics include things like how hot and oven is; cooking over fire versus the fryer versus the microwave; nutrition and food safety.
"They get a seat right in front of the oven and make their own personal pizzas and talk to the chefs about the process they put in to make each piece of dough," said Ethan Bondelid, Via Farina co-owner.
Learning a lesson, in a tasty way. And speaking of tasty, what did the girls put on their pies? Well, you may be surprised. They avoided the kid friendly and went Neapolitan classic.
