Welcome!

Kids in the Kitchen is a collaborative partnership among local businesses, institutions and the Dubuque Community Schools to teach proper nutrition, and the art, history, science and math of food preparation among our children and youth.

This symbol means that Kids in the Kitchen's content is based on curriculum objectives and goals taught in our Dubuque Community Schools.

See past episodes!

See Season 6!

Season 7

What students and parents need to know:

elcome to Season 7 of Kids in the Kitchen at Hy-Vee Asbury Plaza. We begin shooting the 7th season on Thursday February 9th. Our production team, comprised of Gary Olsen, Dubuque Schools , Megan Horstman, Dietician, Hy-Vee Foods, Asbury Plaza, and our chef, Jim Terry, are excited about including you in this season's shows.

What we look for...

Here's what we are looking for in a student: Good grades, an engaging personality, and comfort interacting with adults. We are not looking for perceptible talent for television, nor do we require students know anything about cooking. We prefer they just want to learn and are enthusiastic about the possibilities of being on a television show.

Students with performing experience are always good choices, obviously, and some of these students have been in school productions, perform in school music ensembles, and even participate in their school's televised announcements.

Note that we have never used cue cards or teleprompters. In fact, no show has ever been scripted. This is a form of reality television, and we depend on spontanaeity. What students really need to know is

Kids in the Kitchen is now seen state-wide throughout Iowa on Mediacom Cable's statewide subscriber network. We have all sorts of fans. You can join the Audience any time you wish. Just come back to the Hy-Vee clubroom on production days and join us.

Production Days:

We start production at Hy-Vee Asbury at 8:30 AM usually on Thursdays (see the schedule at right). Since we have a permanent set, shooting will stay within a strict-two and-a-half hour period. Students will be ready to return to school by 11 AM.

The Schedule:

Our master schedule is above, and it consists of shows taped from February 9th through April 19th. There will likely be changes due to school cancellations caused by weather. In which case, we add shooting days on the end of the schedule. You are advised to mark this page as a favorite and continually check to make sure we are on schedule and you'll want to look for additional shooting days.

Transportation, Rights and Permissions:

Each school is responsible for transporting their kids to and from the set, and proper permission forms must be completed and signed by parents allowing students to participate and permission granted to the school district for the use of each student's image and performance. You can consult the Parent/Student Handbook, pages 34 through 36 for specific policy language regarding your legal rights.

Questions? Contact me, Gary Olsen, at 563-564-1992 or e-mail me at olsega@mchsi.com

Gary Olsen, Creator and Producer of
Kids in the Kitchen

am proud to welcome you to the sixth season of Kids in the Kitchen! Thanks so much to our production partners, the City of Dubuque, Mediacom and Hy-Vee Foods, for without their support, the show wouldn't be the incredible success that it is.

We have made continuous improvements to the show the past two years, and our success is due in large part to wonderful casting choices. Chef Jim Terry and our Dietician Megan Horstman are extraordinary talents, and I'm thrilled that they will be back this year on the show. There will be some new faces among the Kids in the Kitchen this season, too. This is going to be a wonderful year, and I promise there will be some surprises.

I've always considered this television show a work in process, an exercise in creative experimentation. I'm frequently asked how much preparation goes into each show. Series television production is a feat of collaborative logistics with many people involved each chosen for their individual talents or skills. Most of the pre-production work for Kids in the Kitchen took almost a year before cameras actually started to roll. Series television then becomes easier to produce because you've developed a format, a sense of timing, and there's an expectation level among participants who become aware of what's expected of them. For example, it used to take a crew of three almost an hour and half to set up for each production. Now it takes two people about 30 to 45 minutes. But now we have a teaching kitchen that was designed expressly for television production, and we have Hy-Vee Foods to thank for that.

I can't speak for our chef, Jim Terry, but I know he brings to every episode a lifetime of cooking expertise, and he always comes to the set with nutritious fare that emphasizes healthful, natural, and particularly organically grown and prepared ingredients. But Jim loves to impart his knowledge of knife handling, proper use of appliances and above all safety and sanitation. Students are not only learning the science and math of food preparation, but the geography, history and literature of cuisine world wide.

We also enjoy the serendipity and happy accidents that occur on set that make for interesting television. When I was dreaming up Kids in the Kitchen, I recalled my own upbringing. In my family, the culinary arts were the domain of my mother. We were a very traditional American household.

Looking back on my own youth, I believe my mother considered cooking as the last essential service she could provide us kids, and I think she wanted to prolong this dependence upon her as long as possible. And God forbid I would question any aspect of food preparation or the ingredients she used. I can only imagine what would have happened if I came home and announced I was thinking of becoming a vegetarian or if I made suggestions about more healthful menu alternatives (if I knew of any at the time).

She actually wasn't too keen on me experimenting in the kitchen. She was perhaps correct that I would most likely make a mess, and there were the dangers of hot surfaces, sharp knives and the specter of food-borne illness looming. I recall an old gas oven in which my mother singed her hair and eyebrows while igniting a pilot light. Thankfully it was a small explosion but an explosion nonetheless because she had left the gas turned on. She could have blown the entire house to kingdom come! Very dangerous! Needless to say I didn't touch anything in the kitchen except what was put on a plate and shoved in front of my face for all the years I was growing up.

I don't think my lack of experience in the kitchen is unique, and so I endeavored to do something about it and help kids develop an appreciation for cooking and healthful ingredients.

I just love the collaborative process of television production. I believe that television is the most perfect medium around which to rally talent and build collaborative relationships.

The results speak for themselves in many ways. Our shows are now seen state-wide on Mediacom and our fan base is growing among their 400,000+ subscribers. Two years ago we won the Beacon Award, cable TV's highest honor for public service series programming beating out such entities as National Geographic Channel, Time Warner, and Cox Cable. I couldn't be more happy for the continued success of our show. I'm particularly proud of our student cast members. They are what's important to us in this enterprise.

I hope you'll stay tuned to this website because it will change frequently in the next several weeks. Photos and episodes will be posted as well as recipes and other information. Perhaps you can come out to Hy-Vee and join our audience and watch a show being taped live. Check the schedule. Filming starts at 9 AM on production days.

--Gary Olsen, Media Developer for the Dubuque Community Schools