More Power to the Flour a review of Flour Power in Fort Mill, SC by Pamela Francis
My son loves watching these kids’ cooking shows on Disney and such with all the baking and the junior chefs running around in their aprons and strategizing their next move in the gleaming kitchens and the over-the-top embellishments on the cakes, and… just fun fun stuff. Him and his dad were avid watchers of Chopped and Hell’s Kitchen for years, so when dad suggested I enroll Jun in culinary school, I was all over it. His birthday was approaching and there happened to be a class on his actual birth day so I was like, yeah, let’s do it! There would be candied bacon…, pumpkin spice egg nog french toast…, and gingerbread whipped cream made entirely by kids! Well, perhaps not entirely… As I experienced that day, and the subsequent classes that followed, kids having free rein in a kitchen is every bit the Disney fantasy. This class was highly supervised. At Flour Power, they aint takin’ nooo chances. 
Ironically one of the things I like the most about the experience at Flour Power — besides the lovely, friendly, and delightfully approachable hostess Ginger Cason, who reminds me so much of not one but TWO of my best friends {Johanna, and Heather}… is how clean and easy they make it all seem. When my kiddo is done we literally turn and go. There is no clean up and no mess. The red tee-shirted Flour Power staff see to it by modeling that age-old good kitchen habit of cleaning as you go. The 3 gals “manning” the kitchen do this after each step and all along the way, allowing the kids to only experience the learning, measuring, stirring, and ultimately, tasting parts of the process. This makes for a spotless kitchen and is just one of those environments I love with its white surfaces, stainless steel, and pale blue accents everywhere. My older son, who comes with me when we bring my 13 yr old said, “I would eat off the floor here!” And I (mostly) (LOL) concur! But again, the ironic drawback could be that the kids are not entrusted to make more of a mess. Consequently, I have felt like most of the work was done FOR them, and not BY them. I would like to see them have their own cook stations, even if they were in them in duos, with maybe the staff walking through and giving instruction and advice while mostly letting creativity reign. I would actually volunteer to be a walk through moderator in a scenario like that, if extra eyes and hands is what it comes down to. Overall, good recipes, though a little on the sweet side (cookies, cupcakes, how to make whipped cream — DELISH!, egg nog French toast…, firecracker milkshakes featuring Mikey’s favorite — POP ROCKS!! gasp!, and candied bacon…) Students eat, not parents, so prepare to drool but stay cool LOL
Good Stuff. I like this place.
