Tribecan Erica Semel was a public school teacher in Chelsea when the pandemic began and when teaching became a completely different prospect. She was teaching kindergarten and special ed in person and virtual, and it was a struggle, both for her and her students. “It really created an impossible situation,” she said.

So she took a break in 2021 and sent herself to culinary school at the Institute of Culinary Education (yes, it is called ICE) in Battery Park City. “It was something I always wanted to do,” Erica said. “I signed up for a two-week class, but it turned into a seven-month certificate program.” By 2022 she was working at Bâtard here in Tribeca as garde manger, then prep, then pastry, and after Bâtard closed, at the Golden Swan in the Village.

The private chef Cara Silman of Freshmade in Soho gave her the idea to teach kids in her downtime and thus her worlds collided. Little Chefs NYC was born. She’s been at it now for a year, building a client list by word of mouth.

She offers classes in the morning for the littles — as young as 3 — and after school with the bigger kids. She can handle up to six, but the sweet spot, she said, is two or three kids at a time.

Each session is about an hour and they make everything from scratch. She talks to the families first to come up with the menu, and the families buy the ingredients in advance. She tries to plan the classes so she and her little chefs can taste their dishes together; she will usually do a smaller project while the dish is in the oven. A class is $150 for two kids, with $25 additional per child.

The idea, Erica said, is to keep them busy and get them fluent with cooking techniques.

“The classes are completely customizable and I tailor them to what the kids are interested in making,” Erica said. “Then the kids do all the work.”