AYF Juniors- ‘Back to the Basics’ Seminar

Jenn Taylor is the Chef/ Food Service Director at Lutherlyn, a retreat and summer camp site in western Pennsylvania which hosts Junior  Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) seminars. This year’s seminar, ‘Back to the Bascis’, was taking place during Memorial Day weekend with an estimated audience of 300 teenagers, ages 12 to 18.


Working at this facility for the past 5 years, Jenn said she struggled to develop a menu to meet the needs of the group, and wanted to incorporate more Armenian food in the menu.


This is where we came into the picture. Jenn wrote to TheArmenianKitchen.com hoping we could help her plan the menu.


We admired her determination in wanting to please the palates of the Armenian youth and were delighted to help. We offered a number of breakfast, lunch and dinner options, including vegetarian choices. Jenn was confident that she and her cooking team would be able to prepare the recipes that she would ultimately select; her task, however, was to translate our recipes into large quantities. Her work was cut out for her!

The recipes Jenn chose from our website to add to the weekend dining experince included:
1. Matnakash (Bokon) bread
2. Armenian Potato-Egg Salad
3. Armenian Chickpea Salad
4. Simit
5. Eggplant-Zucchini Bake

Here’s one of Jenn’s creations for vegetarian attendees: 

 Here are a few of our recipes that Jenn and her staff made:

Update: The Memorial Day weekend event has passed. Jenn wrote a few days later to say, “The weekend was FANTASTIC! Great reviews on our food. My favorite comment was, ‘this is the best food we have had!’.
My work is a ministry. I enjoy passing on good flavors to children and young adults. I want to make a difference in each of their lives. I can do that by making sure when they are away from home they have great food to eat.”

How can you beat that? Please take a look at Jenn’s blog and read what she had to say about the weekend experience, and to see more photos of the food they prepared.
Jenn and her staff worked diligently to accommodate the dietary needs of the participants. How fortunate the camp is to have Jenn and her staff on board!