Renee Cavallo grew up in a large Italian family where food was central to all occasions. Her childhood revolved around food and her early work experiences involved all the duties of her family restaurant. When she has time, she still works in the kitchen of Venetian Moon, her family's restaurant in Reading. She has a B.A. in Education from Endicott College and has spent over 10 years teaching children. Until May of 2005, she was a beloved teacher at Riverside Children's Center in Newton, MA. She graduated from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts' Culinary Certificate Program in 2005 with high honors. Renee's dream has always been to combine her love of children and teaching with her passion for cooking. She lives in Newton with her husband Seth, who is a native of Newton.

Ashley Phippard is a teacher and master baker. She graduated from Bridgewater State College with a B.A. in Psychology and from Scottsdale Culinary Institute with a Le Cordon Bleu Patisserie and Baking Certificate. She has been a nanny, pre-school teacher, a caterer, and a baker, and most recently managed the bakery department in a Whole Foods market. She loves kids, loves baking, and loves getting her hands dirty.

Betsy Arnold comes to us with years of experience as a teacher and pastry chef. She studied pastry arts at Johnson and Wales University and has a BA in Elementary Education from the University of Rhode Island. She has 12 years of experience in production baking, including Montillo Bakery, French Memories Bakery, Boston University and Simmons College. She bakes all of the cupcakes and cakes for our drop-in cake decorating area. She is a wonderful teacher and patient mentor. She loves teaching kids how to cook and bake.

Reba Lawless-Berdaken is a graduate of the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts Professional Chef Program. She has worked with children for over seven years as a teacher, choir director, and music teacher. She has been a personal chef, run her own catering company, and says that working at create-a-cook is her dream job. She also studied at the Longy School of Music and the Berklee College of Music.

Joan Horner graduated with honors from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts Professional Chef Program. She has extensive experience teaching at Eurostoves, the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, Williams Sonoma, and Newton Continuing Education. She also runs her own catering company, Amuse Bouche Inc. She knows more about food than most people and is happy to answer your quirkiest cooking questions. She gets a real kick out of cooking with kids and has been known to get kids to eat things they never would have tried before.