NYC teens host dinner to benefit childhood cancer: ‘Even kids can help’

UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (PIX11) – Joshua Small, 14, has seen cooking as an art form since he started exploring the kitchen at just 6 years old. 

As he gears up to host a fundraiser in April, he now sees cooking as a way to show that “even kids can help” tackle huge issues like childhood cancer. 

Come April 27, Small and his former classmate Alexander Morris will feed 60 hungry and giving diners a three-course meal to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House, which supports families of children undergoing medical treatment. 

“What really connects me and the patient at the Ronald McDonald House is that we are both kids. This shows that not only adults can help – kids can help each other,” Small said. 

Small will cook two dinner services at 5:30 and 8:00 p.m. with an original tasting menu. Morris, also 14, will hold down the front of the house and handle much of the event planning.

Small has already started perfecting the menu, which will include arancini as an appetizer, duck confit with butternut squash puree and radicchio as a main, and basque cheesecake to finish, he said. 

“These dishes are mine completely. I’ve made them before and these are things I’ve either sold or made for my family, they’re all tested,” Small said. 

The first ping of inspiration came two years ago, when a cafe Small frequents received a letter from a cancer patient’s parent saying Chez les Frenchies’ croissants were the only food that brought joy during treatment. 

The note motivated Small to team up with Chez les Frenchies for a Ronald McDonald House fundraiser, offering limited menus at the cafe for two years in a row. 

“I really loved the idea, I thought it was really fun and it was good we were raising money for such a good cause,” Small said.

His co-organizer Morris has also volunteered with the Ronald McDonald House during the holidays. 

Small is no stranger to the culinary industry. While he had an early start to his cooking career, he really honed his craft during COVID, eventually opening up a catering business in the Catskills and selling cold soups to local markets during the summers. 

To him, cooking is an art form. 

“You’re kind of taking big ingredients and refining them, you finish with something that’s completely different from what you started with,” Small said. 

“For example, let's take a quenelle. You start with a big filet of sole and a whole lobster, and you finish with a creamy, luscious sauce … and a delicate, smooth quenelle from a big piece of sole,” Small said.  

Small and Morris’ fundraiser, hosted in tandem with Tastings NYC, will take place at the catering company’s East Harlem outpost. Tickets cost $150 but donations of any size are accepted via this website.