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By Donna Harris
Cherokee Tribune Staff Writer
While most 8-year-olds spend their time playing video games or riding bikes, Lizzie Marie Likness is creating a culinary empire.
The daughter of Jeremy and Doreen Likness of Towne Lake began helping her mother in the kitchen when she was 2, and at age 6, she started her own cooking business: selling homemade cookies and baked goods at local farmers markets.
"I really love (cooking)," said Lizzie Marie, a fourth-grader at the Georgia Virtual Academy online public school. "I probably do it pretty much every day. I love to cook, even when I'm on vacation."
Last year, she developed, with the help of her "computer whiz" dad, her own Web site that features her doing weekly online cooking demonstrations for such dishes as lamb curry, parfaits and barbecue.
"We do seasonal stuff," she said, noting her dad runs the camera and her mom, a tester for a culinary company, helps behind the scenes. "When it's really hot outside, we do something like flavored frozen ice. When it's cold, we make barbecue or soups."
She also features interviews with local farmers, food professionals and chefs, many of which she taped at the Taste of Atlanta event last year.
"Me, my mom and my dad went there and took a video camera, and I interviewed them," said Lizzie Marie, who got her first press credentials for the event.
Her favorite was celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito.
"He was really nice and gave us great tips about cooking and how to help my Web site," she said.
Through the chef's Web site, Lizzie Marie learned about the Del Monte Do Something Good for You! grant program, which encourages young people to create projects that will improve their communities.
The young cook won a $2,500 grant to help her develop her Tasty Tidbits project - hands-on cooking classes for homeschool groups, Girl Scout troops and school groups that "teach kids that healthy foods can be really good and quick to fix," she said.
"I want to show if an 8-year-old can do it, then adults can do it," she said.
With her grant money, she'll be able to buy a close-up camera for her online show, a slow cooker, advertising and supplies for her Tasty Tidbits classes. For these 60- to 90-minute classes, Lizzie Marie and her mother take everything they need to prepare that day's dishes, from appliances and utensils to ingredients and aprons.
One of her favorite dishes to make, which she demonstrated on her online show, is lamb curry.
"We started at 10 or 12 in the morning and finished at 9 at night because the lamb had to marinate for six hours," she said, noting her demonstration ended by showing her and her parents eating the dish for dinner. "It was kind of a challenge but really fun. And it's good, delicious."
Another favorite is her espresso chocolate chip cookies, which she and her mother developed from an ordinary chocolate chip cookie recipe.
"To make it healthier, we added oatmeal and whole-wheat flour in it," she said, noting they also use a teaspoon of espresso and dark chocolate chips. "It's better than regular chocolate chip cookies but not overpowering."
Lizzie Marie said she really likes "cooking everything, but these two are my absolute favorites."
Another entrée she makes often is salmon turtles - salmon fillets covered with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, lemon, white wine and capers and wrapped in foil pouches that steam the fish in the oven.
"I learned that from Girl Scouts," she said. "On a camping trip, we were making turtles, and we actually used chicken and beef. Me and my mom, a few months later, decided to tweak it. We put in salmon or tilapia and tweaked it by putting in capers, lemon and white wine."
In experimenting with and changing recipes, "we sometimes surprise ourselves, good and bad," Mrs. Likness said. "Sometimes we make things that go right into the trash," she said, laughing.
While Lizzie Marie is turning into quite a cook, she hasn't had much "formal" training yet. She has taken two classes at the Cook's Warehouse in Midtown and looks up recipes online or on the Food Network.
"I mostly learn things from my mom," she said.
And though she is quite accomplished for her young age, there still are a few things in the kitchen that her mom won't let her do.
"She doesn't let me use her knife," she said, adding she has her own smaller version that she uses. "And I don't put things into the oven. But I do pretty much everything else. I use the mixer, chop stuff."
As if her schedule weren't full enough, Lizzie Marie plans to spend her Saturdays selling her baked goods at local farmers markets this summer, something she didn't do last year because of a misunderstanding about changes in laws regarding food sales.
"People there call me 'baker girl,'" she said.
While most kids dream of going to Disney World on vacation, Lizzie Marie wants to tour Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
"I've toured the one in Atlanta, but it's not Paris," she said, noting her family is planning to vacation in France in a couple of years. "I will want to tour the one in Paris."
Everything she's pursuing in the culinary field is leading her toward fulfilling her career goal: to own her own restaurant. "It'll probably be mostly Italian food," she said. "I love prosciutto, Parmesan, mozzarella, all that kind of stuff."
Her daughter's cooking career "keeps me busy," Mrs. Likness said, but she's very proud of her accomplishments.
"I think it's awesome that she's excited and passionate about something at such a young age," she said. "My goal is to do what I can to nurture and support her without pushing her."
dharris@cherokeetribune.com
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