ONE-OF-A-KIND CULINARY CLASSROOM

The Henry Ford’s learning kitchen is set to inspire a love for and understanding of garden-based foodways dWhen finished, The Henry Ford’s learning kitchen will be an edible education demonstration space within Greenfield Village’s newest restaurant. A classroom with basic cooking elements, it will be connected to a fullservice kitchen.

Edible education (a term coined by activist chef and educator Alice Waters) calls for schools to involve students with food in every phase of its production — planting, harvesting, preparing, eating and repeating. Waters launched the idea in 1995 as part of the Edible Schoolyard Project at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California. Her work propelled a revival in school gardens.

In 2014, Waters visited The Henry Ford for the first time, sharing her vision of edible education and inspiring a call to action with The Henry Ford leadership. Now, nearly a decade later, with the generous support of the Carver-Carson Society, The Henry Ford has erected the restored Detroit Central Market in Greenfield Village. The Henry Ford is also developing its own edible education curriculum and, in 2024, will open a new restaurant and learning kitchen. This space is designed to encourage home-scale food conversations (and practical applications) between chefs and students as well as with visitors to The Henry Ford.

RENDERING BY QUINN EVANS

IMAGINE

The Henry Ford where students, visitors, local growers and guest chefs can gather to celebrate food. A place where you can learn about where food comes from and have real conversations about how it should be grown, prepared and enjoyed. A destination that encourages healthy cooking practices and allows you to experience foods grown locally with the community around you.

In spring 2024, The Henry Ford is set to open a new, yet-to-be-named restaurant in Greenfield Village (see rendering above) near the Detroit Central Market. Within that restaurant will be a learning kitchen equipped with a large demonstration area, teaching pods and food prep areas. The kitchen will be big enough to host 20-25 students or visitors — a center point of The Henry Ford’s edible education programming going forward, which is designed to help the next generation create healthier, more handson relationships with food.

The new restaurant and on-site learning kitchen are the next chapters in The Henry Ford’s edible education story. For decades, Greenfield Village has been sharing food traditions through its living history programming at the Firestone and Daggett farms. Nearly a decade ago, restaurateur Alice Waters visited The Henry Ford for the first time, planting the seed to create an edible education plan (see The Henry Ford Magazine). Now that “seed” has grown to fruition with the recent addition of the Detroit Central Market and the grand opening of the learning kitchen and new restaurant next year.

“Our learning kitchen and plans for a reimagined lunch program for our Henry Ford Academy students are examples of The Henry Ford putting philanthropy into action,” said Spence Medford, senior vice president and chief advancement officer, The Henry Ford. “Brought to life by the generous support of our donors and the members of what we now call our Carver-Carson Society.”

— JENNIFER LAFORCE, MANAGING EDITOR, THE HENRY FORD MAGAZINE