School & Daycare Cooking Workshops in Ottawa: Planning Guide

• 23.09.2026

Planning a cooking workshop for your class or centre comes down to four decisions: the format, the room, the group size and the date. Cookiddoo brings the ingredients, equipment and utensils, Food Handler certified instructors, tables when a room needs them, and the full menu and program to schools and daycares across Ottawa. Your side provides kitchen access or a classroom with tables for the no-cook format, plus the students. Sessions run 45 to 90 minutes depending on age, for children 4 to 15, with up to 10 children per instructor and a maximum of 30 per session. Current per-group rates sit on the Schools & Daycares page.

The rest of this guide covers what to check in the room, how allergies and food safety are handled, how many adults you need, where a session fits in what you already teach, and the booking sequence.

Choose the format before you pick a date

Four formats cover almost every request we get from Ottawa teachers, ECEs and program coordinators.

The first three formats travel to you. Details and current group rates for all of them live on the Schools & Daycares page; the studio visit is described on school field trips and educational workshops. Community programs and day camps book through the same team — see community centre and camp cooking workshops.

What the room needs

With a school or centre kitchen

A kitchen gives you the widest menu. We need access to the oven or stove, a sink and workspace for the group. Our instructors arrive with everything else: ingredients, equipment, utensils, the menu and the program.

Without a kitchen

Programs also run in a no-cook format that needs tables only. That version is built from no-bake recipes, food assembly, decoration and nutrition education, and it works in a regular classroom or a multi-purpose room. Plenty of daycare and primary-grade bookings run this way by choice, because setup and supervision stay simple.

Who brings what

The split is fixed, which keeps the paperwork short on your side.

Cookiddoo brings:

• All ingredients for the chosen menu
• Equipment and utensils, including portable gear for rooms without a kitchen
• Certified Food Handler instructors
• Tables, if the room needs them
• The full curriculum and menu for the age group

Your school or centre provides:

• Kitchen access — oven or stove, sink, workspace — or a classroom with tables for the no-cook format
• The group, within the ages 4 to 15 range
• Your usual supervising staff

Checklist before you confirm the date

• Which room you can hold, and whether it has kitchen access
• Number of students and their ages
• Every allergy and dietary restriction in the group
• The length of the block you can give us, and the time it starts
• One date and one backup date
• Who our instructors check in with on arrival, and where they can unload
• Whether the session runs in English or French

Allergies and food safety

Ontario's Ministry of Education is explicit about this in the Health and Physical Education curriculum: “All food-related activities must adhere to school board policies related to prevalent medical conditions (e.g., anaphylaxis, diabetes).” Under Sabrina's Law, 2005, every publicly funded school board in Ontario keeps an anaphylactic policy that covers risk-reduction strategies, a communication plan, staff training, and an individual plan for each anaphylactic pupil.

Our side of that work starts with your request. Send every allergen in the group, together with anything an individual plan requires to stay out of the room. We plan the menu around those restrictions where the recipe allows, and confirm with you what is in and what is out before the date. Instructors hold Food Handler certification and run nut-free protocols. Knife skills come in from age 7 and up, with the tools and supervision matched to the age group.

How many adults you need in the room

Staffing on our side scales with the group: up to 10 children per instructor, an assistant added from 11 children, and a maximum of 30 children in one session. Your educators stay with the class and keep working under your board's or centre's own supervision rules, and they are welcome to join in — most do, especially with the youngest groups.

For a class of 28, that means our instructor plus assistants on our side, and your usual classroom coverage on yours. Tell us the head count early; it decides both staffing and how the room gets laid out.

Session length by age

Those lengths are built around attention spans, and they fit inside a standard block for most timetables. Sessions run in English or French, so French-stream and immersion classes get the session in the language they work in.

Where a cooking session fits in what you already teach

The Ontario curriculum gives you a direct hook. In Health and Physical Education, Grades 1–8 (2019), healthy eating is one of five content areas inside Strand D, Healthy Living, and the document states plainly that “hands-on experiences with food help students make real connections between what they learn in the classroom and their own lives.”

Beyond that strand, a session carries measurement and fractions for math, observable change in ingredients for science, and reading a recipe as a technical text for language. Children work in small groups, take turns, and handle a task that has a visible result at the end of the block. Tell us which unit your class is on when you book, and the menu choice can lean toward it.

Booking: the sequence

1. Contact us and check availability. Send group size, ages, room type, preferred format and your dates through the request form on the Schools & Daycares page, or call +1 613-710-0554.
2. Schedule a pilot session. One pilot session is available at a reduced rate, which is the cheapest way to see how a group responds before you commit to a term.
3. Confirm the start date. Once the menu, group size and allergy list are settled, the dates go in the calendar.

Lead time matters most for studio field trips, where four to six weeks is the practical window and October, November, March Break and May fill first. On-site workshops have more room in the calendar, though a fall or spring term still books best as soon as your program plan is approved.

Related options for your families

Parents often ask the same week you announce a workshop. School break coverage runs through Cookiddoo culinary camps, and families who want the same instructors at home book a mobile cooking party or workshop. General questions about ages, languages and formats are answered on the Cookiddoo FAQ page.

Request a workshop for your school or daycare

• Email: info@cookiddoo.com
• Phone: +1 613-710-0554
• Studio: 301-150 Katimavik Rd, Kanata, Ottawa, ON K2L 2N2
• Rates and request form: Schools & Daycares