"Mom, I Don't Wanna Come Home!" Camp Food Goes Gourmet - Food News - Cooking

“Mom, I Don’t Wanna Come Home!” Camp Food Goes Gourmet

No Comments | Written on July 12, 2012 at 1:00 pm, by Lesley Kennedy

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Hello Muddah,
Hello Fadduh.
Here I am at
Camp Granada.
Camp is filling
up my belly.
Once I’m home, don’t you dare serve pb & jelly.

Remember when eating at summer camp meant loading up on lumpy oatmeal, baked beans and mystery meat?

Clearly, we grew up in the wrong era.

Today, kids attending chi-chi getaways like Camp Ballibay in Camptown, Pa., are greeted with the aroma of shredded chicken cooked in a ginger-soy sauce with cilantro puree, grilled fruit kebabs with a balsamic-maple syrup reduction and Korean bibimbap, according to The New York Times.

Instead of the aforementioned mystery meat being the only thing green on the menu, these campers have access to a salad bar complete with bok choy, edamame, hummus and couscous, according to the newspaper, with snacks such as nonfat yogurt with fresh melon, zucchini bread and sweet-and-sour kale chips. Obviously, there are gluten-free zones. (Of course there are.) While over at Point O’Pines girls’ camp in the Adirondacks, a fave food is panko-crusted lemon chicken.

Are we too old to go to camp?

Apparently the quality of camp food — nay, cuisine — has seen a big increase recently, with 34 percent of camps saying they’ve added vegetable gardening and cooking activities to their agendas during the past five years, according to an American Camp Association survey.

“Food is a big deal at camp,” Jon Deren, co-owner of Maine’s Camp Manitou, tells the Times. “It’s a question I get often from parents: ‘What are you serving?’ ”

Of course, haute cuisine is a lot pricier than hot dogs.

According to the newspaper, serving high-quality food can up a camp’s food budget by 15 percent. But that’s not a problem with you’ve got some parents who are willing to pay — get this — $11,000 or more for a seven week session.

Geesh. At those prices, kids better be dining on grass-fed filet mignon, the finest farm-to-table delicacies and all the sushi they can eat.

But do they still get s’mores?