I was thrilled to be invited to be the guest chef by Mardi Michels', of eatlivtravwrite to her Les Petit Chefs for an afternoon of cooking with her after school club. Ten red cheeked exuberant chef's, aged 9 to 11,  pitched in to make two fabulous and easy dishes from Canadian Living's Make It Tonight updated collection, Tex-Mex Tomato Rice Soup and Chicken Piccata Linguini. A pair of students each manned a station equipped with a science lab hotplate, cutting board, chef's knife and bowls and proceeded to make culinary magic They chopped: [caption id="attachment_2045" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Chopping carrots for Tex-Mex Tomato Rice Soup"] [/caption] [caption id="attachment_2046" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Chopping garlic for Tex-Mex Tomato Rice Soup"] [/caption] stirred, [caption id="attachment_2040" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Stirring Tex-Mex Tomato Rice Soup"] [/caption] chopped some more, [caption id="attachment_2041" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Chopping parsley for Chicken Piccata Linguini"] [/caption] grated, [caption id="attachment_2042" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Grating parmesan cheese "] [/caption] and fried. [caption id="attachment_2043" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Frying chicken for Chicken Piccata Linguini"] [/caption] A team of 10 little chefs made dinner to take home to their families in two busy hours. [caption id="attachment_2047" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Tex Mex Tomato Rice Soup ready to take home"] [/caption] [caption id="attachment_2048" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Chicken Piccata Linguini for take home"] [/caption] I was delighted and amazed at how Mademoiselle Michels guided her little cooks in the makeshift kitchen. These kids had no issue with chopping jalapenos (gloves provided) or touching raw chicken (washing up right away). I can't wait for our next foray into Science Lab cuisine. So the next time you think you might not have the right equipment for the job, just remember what these little chef's accomplished, with basic equipment and loads of confidence! Bravo! What memorable dishes have you made with just a hotplate?