Food and Science Workshops for Kids at Vivistop Telliskivi’s Kitchen Island

It has long been known, that cooking is a magical activity that brings people together. Through experiments, kids will learn scientific thinking techniques as well as get practical skills while creating something new with their own hands. We want to encourage kids to feel the joy, while learning something new at the same time — cooking is an excellent way to experience both. Twice a week in Vivistop Telliskivi studio’s Kitchen Island, food and science workshops will be held by Vivita’s kitchen scientist in residence — Carlo.

Who is Carlo? Twice a week, when he isn’t currently working at Fotografiska, he’s working together with kids at Vivita to teach them how to use the machines and tools. Carlo is always very sincere and finds a mutual language with everyone, even if you might not be speaking English or Italian. For instance, spring 2022 we held a Family Day for Ukrainian families. One moment, everybody gathered and looked carefully around. The next moment, you could hear both kids and parents singing in the studio around the Kitchen Island, while preparing a delicious dish for everybody.

Kids have tried out different kinds of recipes and science experiments. They have had the opportunity to make pasta from scratch. Are you even a Vivita member if you haven’t tried making pasta by yourself? Apart from that, in collaboration with Estonian National Television food and science show for kids “Sweet Molecule”, who have shot the episodes at Kitchen Island, we have tried out the science experiments. Such as making the carrots bend, creating a secret cipher to your friend with milk or how to make a cloud inside the bottle.

Usually, kids are not allowed to play with food, but at Kitchen Island we turn it upside down. At Vivita, kids can play with food while getting new knowledge. The kitchen science workshops look usually like this that all the kids gather together and at first a science experiment is explained by Carlo, which then is followed by mutual cooking. Each kid gets a task for which he/she is responsible for.

In addition, it is popular among children and young people to conduct workshops for others of their own age. This teaches them to part of a team and to work on a mutual goal. Food can teach us a lot about science, biology, and chemistry and through conducting experiments children will begin to observe the world around them.

Text and photos: Vivita Estonia, Magus Molekul
April 2023