Community Classroom Kitchen Initiative

Using Kitchen Skills to Teach Culinary Lessons & Lessons for Life

Community Classroom Kitchen (CCK) brings life skills into the kitchen and kitchen skills into life and is tapping into South Florida’s top culinary talent for programming, expertise and collective creativity.

CCK is committed to gathering families and neighbors together around a healthy dinner table, and that starts with training a culinary workforce that is passionate and equipped for health and success. Inspiring young adults to become food entrepreneurs is what we do. By connecting chefs and culinary experts with those who are eager to learn, we are able to co-create the future of the vital industry.

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Culinary Classes

Space of Mind and Community Classroom share a campus in downtown Delray Beach. A portion of the proceeds from select Space of Mind programs & classes support the Community Classroom Project, which is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing stress through creativity.

Foodie Road Trip: Global-Inspired Eats from India

Jul 10th – Adults

Join us in the Indian State of Maharashtra for a meal more commonly enjoyed in an Indian home. These featured dishes are eaten in celebrations, as street food and as an everyday side dish. Learn how to cook a traditional Indian home cooked meal!

Easy Bake Oven: Master the Basics of Baking – Cream Puffs, Eclairs & Cheese Gougeres

Jul 13th – Adults

Become the baker your 9 year old self knew you were! Only this time, there’s commercial-size mixers and bigger metal sheet pans. Plus, the result will taste way better!

Kitchen Heroics: Mastering (not so challenging) Dishes – Scallops in Champagne Butter Sauce

Jul 20th – Adults

What, like it’s hard?! Get ready to bang out the fancy food without losing your cool. You’ll have everyone around your table wondering how you found the time and where you got your flair!

Kitchen Heroics: Mastering (not so) Challenging Dishes – Cheese Making

Jul 30th – Adults

What, like it’s hard?! Get ready to bang out the fancy food without losing your cool. You’ll have everyone around your table wondering how you found the time and where you got your flair!

Kitchen Heroics: Mastering (not so) Challenging Dishes – Duck Breast with Port Cherry Sauce

Aug 24th – Adults

What, like it’s hard?! Get ready to bang out the fancy food without losing your cool. You’ll have everyone around your table wondering how you found the time and where you got your flair!

Chef’s Table Dinner with Chef Jimmy Everett

Sep 9th – Adults

Jimmy Everett of Driftwood in Delray Beach trained in some of NYC’s top restaurants before leading kitchens in Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Ft Lauderdale. Driftwood was born from the experiences, ideas and passions that Jimmy and his wife Ilia, gained on their Journey.

By the Book: Tackle Recipes from the Cookbooks of Music Icons – Hip Hop

Sep 13th – Adults

Cookin’ with Coolio, 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price, Snoop Dogg: From Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipes From tha Boss Dog’s Kitchen , Rapper’s Delight: The Hip Hop Cookbook.

Kitchen Heroics: Mastering (not so) Challenging Dishes – Lobster Ravioli

Sep 14th – Adults

What, like it’s hard?! Get ready to bang out the fancy food without losing your cool. You’ll have everyone around your table wondering how you found the time and where you got your flair!

Holiday Remix – Celebratory Dishes Your Family Will Want Every Year – Rosh Hashanah

Sep 25th – Adults

Change is good, but everything in the holiday meals bring us comfort because they take us back to the tastes of childhood. Rediscover your family favorites and let your inner child come out to make them even better.

Kitchen Heroics: Mastering (not so) Challenging Dishes: Sushi

Oct 26th – Adults

What, like it’s hard?! Get ready to bang out the fancy food without losing your cool. You’ll have everyone around your table wondering how you found the time and where you got your flair!

Holiday Remix: Celebratory Dishes Your Family Will Want Every Year – Thanksgiving Edition

Nov 13th – Adults

Change is good, but everything in the holiday meals bring us comfort because they take us back to the tastes of childhood. Rediscover your family favorites and let your inner child come out to make them even better.

All CCK programming connects participants from varied socio-economic backgrounds, neighborhoods, and cultures, allowing everyone to learn – and be nourished – together.

CCK Programs include:

• Cooking classes, workshops and parties
• Dinners & events
• Full production set for production of food-related media
• Front and back-of-the-house workforce training for teens and young adults
• Lending library for students and chefs
• Commissary and test kitchen for chefs and young food entrepreneurs
• One-For-One Meal Box Project
• Culinary Industry Think Tank for professionals

Expanding access to culinary education

CCK is fueled by a passionate group of chefs, culinary instructors, food entrepreneurs, educators, mental health providers and community leaders who are coming together to provide industry-changing programming that will expand access to culinary education.

Launched via lockdown

The Community Classroom Kitchen was launched during Covid-19’s lockdown when Founder, Ali Kaufman, and Founding Chef, Blake Malatesta, sought to solve a local food crisis and donated one meal box to a family in need for each meal box sold.

CCK is currently building a commercial teaching kitchen and an entrepreneurial test kitchen on the Space of Mind downtown Delray Beach campus. CCK will be open for full cooking classes, workshops, parties and events in Fall 2024.