The Color-Coded Chef: Building Life Skills for People with Intellectual Development Disorder Through Cooking
by Gina Baldwin, M.S., CCC, Speech Language Pathologist
https://app2speak.com
If your family is like most, the holidays are full of hustle and bustle—buying gifts, decorating the house, and making travel plans to see loved ones. And let’s not forget the cooking. And the eating. Lots and lots of cooking and eating.
But not all families are the same. Some families include loved ones with an intellectual development disorder or other challenge that keeps them from participating fully in some of the festivities.
That’s why I wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine, Terri Jordan, founder of The Color-Coded Chef (thecolorcodedchef.com), which empowers individuals with intellectual developmental delays to cook confidently and learn essential life skills through a step-by-step, color-coded recipe format.
As you know, I usually use these blog posts to share information to help those who have lost their ability to speak lead more normal lives or to support the loved ones of these individuals who serve as caregivers.
But with the holidays upon us, I thought I’d branch out a bit today and share a little about Terri’s business. She has also created a business dedicated to serving others.
About The Color-Coded ChefThe Color-Coded Chef
It began with Terri’s son, who has an intellectual development delay.
Recognizing the challenges posed by her son’s disability, Terri immersed herself in researching different ways she might help her son lead a happy and independent life. After exploring various possibilities, she realized that cooking provided the perfect gateway to unlock a world of options for her son.
It encompassed the joy of savoring delicious meals and instilled a sense of accomplishment, camaraderie, and control over nutrition. With its wide range of essential skills, cooking became her chosen avenue to nurture her son’s growth.
Driven by her son’s unique needs, Terri envisioned a set of tools that would help him be more successful, transcend the limitations of other people with intellectual development delays, and help them achieve success in the kitchen.
With this goal in mind, Terri developed a system that combined color-coded tools like measuring cups and spoons with simple, step-by-step visual directions for several basic recipes—and The Color-Coded Chef was born.
Launched in 2018, The Color-Coded Chef has elicited an overwhelmingly positive response, validating Terri’s vision of the need for inclusivity in how our society approaches cooking education.
How The Color-Coded Chef Builds Life SkillsMost recipes you see are challenging for someone with an intellectual development disorder.
They use lots of vocabulary you might not see anywhere else (like saute, puree, whisk, preheat, and grate).
They’re usually written at an adult level in large blocks of text.
If any pictures are included, it’s usually just one photo of the finished recipe.
With her recipes, Terri realized she needed to flip the script to the usual format.
She does her best to keep the vocabulary simple,
she breaks down each recipe into small steps, and
she provides a picture with each step.
In addition, many of the tools, like measuring cups and spoons, are color-coded, meaning the recipe just has to say, “Add one blue cup of brown sugar” or “Add one purple spoon of baking soda,” which cuts down on the use of confusing measurements and fractions.
How does all of this help to develop practical life skills? Well, instead of looking at a daunting, traditionally formatted recipe and immediately giving up, someone with an intellectual development disorder (with the support of a caring adult nearby) can work through a much less intimidating Color-Coded Chef recipe one step at a time. And when they pull the finished product out of the oven or off the stove top, their confidence goes through the roof!
Want to see how it works? Click this link to check out an example recipe (yummy chocolate chip cookies!).
Who Benefits from The Color-Coded Chef?
The Color-Coded Chef offers a lifeline for those left behind by traditional cooking methods. It revolutionizes the culinary landscape by eliminating barriers such as limited reading skills, cognitive abilities, fine motor skills, math proficiency, and steady hands.
As long as a capable adult supervises the work, just about anyone can create mouth-watering dishes and desserts.
While the original intent was to provide confidence and independence for people with intellectual development disorder, the Color-Coded Chef Kit and recipes are perfect for various people—from young, aspiring chefs to caregivers tending to individuals with dementia.
Fostering Independence through CookingAs I said at the beginning, the holiday season is here, and there’s no better time to get into the kitchen and create some delicious memories with your family. Whether baking sweet treats for a holiday gathering or whipping up festive meals to share with loved ones, the Color-Coded Chef Kit makes the process fun, engaging, and stress-free.
Plus, it’s a great way to build confidence in those with developmental challenges, encourage teamwork and independence, all while creating tasty holiday favorites!
No matter what you choose to create, the holidays are the perfect time to enjoy food, fun, and family. Ready to make this the sweetest holiday season ever? Check out The Color-Coded Chef and start cooking up some (inclusive) holiday magic.
And you’ll get the satisfaction of supporting a great cause simultaneously!
Guest writer Gina Baldwin, M.S., CCC, Speech Language Pathologist https://app2speak.com
