The Bermudian organiser of a children's cooking workshop has made it her life mission to combat child obesity and diabetes by teaching healthy cooking.

Over the last five years, Karla Lacey-Minors has taught more than 5,000 children about the joy of good eating through her Junior Chefs Central programme based in Sacramento, California.

And more than 170 Bermudian children had a chance to participate through a special Kids' Culinary Conference held at CedarBridge Academy on Saturday.

The conference included workshops taught by Ms Lacey-Minors, and three of her California students master junior chefs Andrew Smith, 14, and Allison Barcelon, 13, and elite junior chef Miyel Brown-Trigg, 12.

The three achieved their rankings as they progressed through classes with Ms Lacey-Minors.

Although some might question Andrew's participation, she said that boys were not a rarity in her cooking classes.

"With some of our classes it is nothing but boys, other times it is about 55 percent," she said. "It is because of the popularity of cooking programmes like 'Iron Chef America' on the Food Network.

"Boys now see cooking as a viable way to be a celebrity. Chefs are the new rock stars. Kids who may not have found their passion love the idea of being able to feed people, and get attention also. Boys are very much into cooking."

She said her programme attempted to bridge the gap between lecturing a child about what they should eat and what actually goes into their mouths.

"You can tell them about nutrition, but they usually eat whatever is put in front of them by whoever prepares it for them," she said. "If they prepared the food themselves then all those lessons about nutrition would come into play."

And many of her students are now looking at cooking as a possible career path.

"In terms of future careers, Bermuda is 'fertile ground' for budding chefs," she said. "You have so many restaurants here, so you have career opportunities.

"You also have the ability for people to further their education in the culinary arts at the Bermuda College."

The children worked in teams of four during Saturday's cooking conference, moving stations set up for a number of purposes including measuring dry goods and oils, sautéing, blending, and preparing fruits and vegetables.

"Everything is seasonal," she said. "Everything incorporates the idea of a five-a-day fresh fruits and vegetables diet."

During the conference the children learned how to make recipes that they could take home and share with their families.

They also learned some important culinary skills.

"One of the most important things the kids learned is knife safety," said Ms Lacey-Minors. "Unfortunately, many kids go home from a cooking class ready to cook, but are prevented from doing so by anxious parents.

"Their parents will be like 'don't touch that, that's sharp', or 'don't touch that, that's hot'."

At the conference, junior chefs learned knife techniques such as slicing, dicing, julienne and other types of cuts.

"If you can't handle a knife you are very limited in what you can cook," said Ms Lacey-Minors. "The other thing we look at when they are sautéing is how to handle hot oils, and how to control heat and ensure even cooking."

In 2003 Ms Lacey-Minors left a career in banking in Bermuda and moved to the United States. Before that, she was well-known locally for her work in the culinary arts arena.

"I had the Chef of the Year competition that went on here for eight years," she said. "I did a lot of food writing when I was here. I have always had food as a passion on the side, but it was nothing I thought I could do as a career. I like to eat the food but I didn't want to be the one on the other side."

She moved to Sacramento, California which is in the San Joaquin Valley, known as the "foodbowl of America".

"They prepare 80 percent of the fresh fruits and produce that goes throughout the United States and is shipped beyond," she said.

"Here I was in a community that had California farmers' markets every day. Because of the plentifulness of the fresh produce it is sold at a lower cost than what you get in the grocery store. And it has been picked within 24 to 48 hours of you buying it. Yet, in this community there was a big concern about childhood obesity, diabetes and all the ailments that go with a poor diet and sedentary lifestyle."

She said the situation moved her to start Junior Chefs International after certifying herself as a professional chef.

"I saw the need to educate people on cooking," she said. "I couldn't believe that where we were living kids were in such poor health.

"It was put on my heart to work with the kids."

In addition to teaching children regular classes, she also goes to schools for culinary assemblies, holds a Junior Chefs Central convention in the United States, and runs a culinary arts boot camp in Bermuda in the summer.

"The Bermuda Chef Association has been tremendously supportive of the programme," said Ms Lacey-Minors. "They were supportive last summer with the camp.

"They provided a lot of the things we needed so we didn't have to bring them in. They provided the blenders and sauté pans and other equipment we needed for this conference."

She said local chefs were supportive of Junior Chefs International for several reasons. "They see this as creating potential employees," she said. "One of our sponsors, Claudio Vigilante from Frescos, said he also looks at it from a customer perspective.

"His whole thing is that you have a more educated customer if they understand the food. If they have had their pallet and mind opened, they will make wonderful consumers of food. So it is a win-win situation all around."

There is already a waiting list for summer boot camp where campers will be called on daily, to make a four-course meal. They will also learn about etiquette, and visit a farm to see where food comes from.

"They learn about the cycle of food," said Ms Lacey-Minors. "They know where their food comes from. They know how to collect it, how to prepare it, cook it, serve it and they know how to eat it. That sounds really simple, but it is not unfortunately today.

"So many kids are used to eating with their hands. They eat burgers, fries, chicken, and wraps. How often do you see kids using their fork these days?

"And as the world gets smaller they may be breaking bread with someone from the continent of Africa, from Europe, or North America and they need to feel comfortable that they can handle themselves properly. They don't need to be embarrassed because they don't know which fork and knife to use. That is all part of the summer camp. It is very in-depth."

Junior Chefs Central recently took part in a study that teaches fitness, nutrition and cooking to classroom low-achievers.

"The study targeted kids who had high Body Mass Indexes (BMI) and low test scores in English and math," she said.

"They are the kids that have been labelled. They can't keep up in all sorts of ways."

The study will follow the kids over the next couple of years, but has already seen increases in self-esteem, and also improvements in expectation from the students' teachers.

"The kids got a fresh start in the eyes of their teachers," Ms Lacey-Minors said. "When kids are labelled it tends to follow them throughout their school years. "After they took part in this programme, the teacher said, 'wait a minute, you can prepare these meals, work in a team and get these recipes done? Then how come you can't do this?'"

Ms Lacey-Minors is now hoping to get something similar set up in Bermuda schools in late autumn, but it is a work in progress.

For more information visit www.jrchefcentral.com, or telephone 916-691-4323.