Maggie Swanson

Common Threads’ Chef Instructors are professional chefs and teachers, trained in Common Threads’ unique curriculum, who teach the students at each of our thirty sites throughout Chicago, as well as in Los Angeles, Miami and Washington, DC. Chef Instructors nurture and mentor our students, while leading them through the prep, cooking, clean-up and, of course, eating of the three hands-on ethnic recipes each week!

I started cooking as a child, right around the same age as our youngest Common Threads students. I fell in love with it instantly and have never stopped cooking since. I can remember baking apple cobblers with my babysitters and cookies with my best friend. The freedom my parents gave me to explore in the kitchen instilled in me a love of good food, but also a love and respect for the art and process of preparing and creating that food. Cooking is exciting, always new, and full of adventure. As a Chef Instructor at Common Threads, it is an honor to be able to share this adventure with children. I love seeing their eyes open as they smell and taste new ingredients. I love seeing their focus and determination as they carefully chop an onion. I love their enthusiasm as they see their creation come out of the oven. I am in awe of how these little chefs rise to the challenge and create fantastic healthy meals. It is a delight to be their teacher.