Cooking Good

By Jeremy Caplan

Aspiring entrepreneurs would do well to visit Gina Martinez's new culinary studios in Morrisville, N.J. You will probably find a big batch of 10-year-olds in mini-aprons whipping up a carrot cake or chanting "Viva the chef! Viva the chef!" in time to their vegetable chopping. With folk songs playing in the slick teaching kitchen, the kids hum while their food sizzles. It's an unconventional kind of cooking school, and it really works. Martinez, 38, a Cuban-American former school teacher, has used that recipe to build a national chain of cooking schools for kids featuring courses like Mind, Body and Belly. By the end of 2005, Martinez--who spent her life savings of $400,000 to open her first store just a year ago--will have 27 Viva the Chef franchises in Alabama, Florida and Pennsylvania.

How has Martinez done it? By learning on the job. In 1987 she founded Toddler University, a kitchen-equipped Miami day-care center. She has continued to hone her ideas and hasn't stopped trying new ones. She's starting to market a new biscotti mix, the profits from which will go to research on children's AIDS. Martinez says she reads a business book a night to bone up on her business skills. "I've practically earned an M.B.A.," she says. With an animated cooking show and six cookbooks in the works too, she's clearly a good student. --By Jeremy Caplan