Fran Christensen knows the secret to getting kids to eat their vegetables.

In her after-school cooking classes across El Dorado County, she introduces children to the basics of food preparation and discusses the importance of making food look good on the plate. She then encourages them to try foods they might not have liked in the past. “More times than not, students say something like, ‘I never liked mushrooms before, but I like this!” she shares.  

For Christensen, a retired food service broker who has spent much of her life working with food, the most rewarding part of her newfound career is exposing kids to the world of culinary arts while also teaching them crucial kitchen skills, such as how to properly hold a knife or how to put out a grease fire. What’s more, she’s the author of Cooking with Mrs. C: At School and a forthcoming volume, Cooking with Mrs. C: Parties and Sleepovers (cookingwithmrsc.com). Her big goal for the near future is to donate the bulk of her books’ profits to school fundraisers, in lieu of the customary candy and junk food sales. Through her books, she hopes to give kids the confidence to get cooking. “When a child takes a book and can go home and prepare a snack or meal, they feel really empowered,” Christensen says. Follow Christensen on twitter @MrsCKidsCook.

For more about Fran Christensen and other local happenings and information, be sure to pick up this month's copy of Style – El Dorado County Foothills edition. Click on the Get Your Copy link for some of our newsstand locations; click on the Subscribe link to become a regular subscriber, or to order a copy of this issue or one of our back issues.