WILMINGTON, N.C. — It’s been just over a week since kids all over North Carolina started a new school year. While being back in the classroom is great, one student is utilizing a classroom that looks a little different: his kitchen.
What You Need To Know
Zachary Petermann is 6 1/2 years old and has a goal of becoming a professional chef by the age of 12
He has been cooking lots of meals for his family and is trying to learn more using cooking kits
Eventually, he hopes to take cooking classes locally
Zachary Petermann has been cooking for as long as he can remember. He’s 6 1/2 years old and already using the stove, oven and microwave. Getting involved with cooking is something that started as a way for him to grow a healthy relationship with food.
“It’s kind of funny because he, out of my two boys, is the picky eater, so he has about five or six things that he actually likes to eat,” Sally Petermann, Zachary’s mother, said. “I think it started as an interest in getting him to eat more, and then he started having fun with food and he started making his own creations with food.”
Since then, his passion for food has only grown. Now, he has a goal of becoming a professional chef by the age of 12 and even owning his own restaurant shortly after that. Although that’s a lofty goal, Zachary Petermann has plenty of support.
“I think it’s really fun to do this, it’s been something we’ve been able to bond over and spend time over,” Sally Petermann said. “And he teaches me probably as much as I teach him doing these.”
Professional chef or not, they’re just happy that cooking has been so beneficial for Zachary. It even serves as an additional learning source outside of the classroom.
“I love that it kind of spans a whole lot of educational areas for him,” Sally Petermann said. “He gets to be creative and artsy with it, he’s learning fractions and math and how to read measurements, he gets to read, that’s actually how he’s gotten better reading is by reading some of the words on the things we made.”
Zachary is currently learning new recipes from cooking kits specifically catered for young chefs in the making. He hopes to be enrolled in cooking classes in the near future.