About Us
A chef-led education organization.
DC Culinary Club exists to teach young people how to cook real food, understand what fuels them, and carry that competence into adulthood.
Our Mission
Cooking is a life skill. Food is the foundation.
Every young person deserves more than the ability to follow a recipe. They deserve to understand ingredients, technique, nourishment, and the role food plays in their health, confidence, family, and culture.
DC Culinary Club exists to make that understanding practical. Through small, hands-on programs led by Chef Rémy, we teach children, teens, young athletes, and the schools and organizations that serve them how to prepare real food, make informed choices, and feel capable in the kitchen.
We are not simply teaching students what to make. We are teaching them how food works, why it matters, and how to carry that knowledge into their everyday lives.
Our hope is to help raise a generation that is curious about ingredients, confident in the kitchen, and equipped to nourish themselves and the people around them for life.
What Guides Every Program
The DC Culinary Standard
We believe young people deserve more than instructions to follow. They deserve the knowledge, technique, and confidence to understand what they are doing and why it matters.
Understand the Ingredients
Students learn what ingredients are, how they work together, and how thoughtful choices shape the food they prepare.
Build Skill Through Practice
Real confidence comes from doing. Students measure, prepare, cook, taste, adjust, and learn through hands-on experience.
Nourishment Without Fear
Food and nutrition are taught with clarity and balance, helping students understand how food supports energy, growth, recovery, and everyday well-being.
Teach with Care
Every program is chef-led, thoughtfully structured, and designed to help each student feel encouraged, capable, and proud of what they create.
We don’t stop at recipes. We teach understanding.
The People Behind DC Culinary Club
Built from experience. Led with purpose.
DC Culinary Club brings together professional culinary training and a deeply personal belief in the power of food education. Rémy and Stephanie founded the organization to give young people the knowledge, practical skills, and confidence they believe every child deserves.
Executive Chef & Founder
Chef Rémy Carton
Some people find food. Rémy was found by it.
Raised in France’s Beauce region, Rémy first entered a kitchen at six years old during a local bread-making workshop. The baker leading that workshop would later become both his mentor and his formal instructor in the French apprenticeship system.
At fifteen, Rémy chose to pursue the craft professionally, enrolling in the CAP Boulangerie and beginning the demanding training that shaped his approach to food: master the fundamentals, respect the ingredients, and never substitute appearance for understanding. His commitment eventually led him to one of France’s most competitive stages, where he earned the title of Meilleur Jeune Boulanger de France in 2011.
After coming to the United States, Rémy continued developing his craft in high-volume, multicultural culinary environments. Those experiences broadened his understanding of food while reinforcing the principles at the center of his work: technique, consistency, care, and the confidence that comes from knowing why something works.
Today, he brings that experience to every DC Culinary Club program. Rémy does not simply demonstrate recipes. He teaches students how ingredients behave, how techniques connect, and how to become capable enough to make thoughtful decisions for themselves.
- French-trained culinary professional
- Meilleur Jeune Boulanger de France, 2011
- Educator and mentor
- Founder of DC Culinary Club
“Understanding gives a student something a recipe never can: the confidence to begin without one.”
Co-Founder & Strategic Director
Stephanie Carton
Stephanie’s connection to food began with culture. Raised in a French household, she grew up understanding that meals were never merely something to get through. They were prepared with care, shared without rushing, and rooted in family and connection.
As a young athlete, Stephanie also experienced the demands placed on the body without receiving the practical nutrition education needed to support it. At eighteen, she was diagnosed with PCOS. Years of hormonal imbalance followed, and a later Hashimoto’s diagnosis deepened her understanding of how profoundly food, stress, environment, and daily habits can shape the way a person feels.
Her relationship with food changed through her husband, Chef Rémy. His approach was grounded not in restriction or trends, but in real ingredients, thoughtful preparation, consistency, and an understanding of how food works. Through the life they built together, Stephanie found a more intentional way of nourishing herself, one that became an important part of her healing journey and helped her regain a sense of stability, confidence, and trust in her body.
That experience became part of the foundation of DC Culinary Club. Stephanie believes young people should not have to reach adulthood before learning how to feed themselves well or understanding the relationship between food, energy, performance, and long-term well-being.
Today, she leads the organization’s strategy, partnerships, and program development, helping translate Chef Rémy’s culinary expertise into meaningful educational experiences for children, families, athletes, schools, and community organizations. Her work is driven by a deeply personal conviction: when young people are given knowledge early, they are better equipped to care for themselves for life.
- Strategic vision and program development
- School and community partnerships
- Youth and athlete education
- Family health and long-term well-being
“Education gives young people something no trend ever can: the confidence to understand their bodies, their food, and the choices available to them.”
Together, Rémy and Stephanie built DC Culinary Club around one shared belief: young people deserve to understand food before they are expected to make lifelong decisions about it.
