Three teams of C'est si Bon chefs created their own take on Italian bruschetta at Carrboro's Farmers' Market on Wednesday.

The market often has cooking demonstrations to show customers what they can do with market ingredients, manager Sheila Neal said.

So what had market shoppers doing a double take?

Most of the chefs didn't even have their driver's licenses yet.

Dorette Snover, owner of C'est si Bon Cooking School in Chapel Hill, brought six of her summer camp students to the market, where they selected ingredients and cooked their own recipes.

Many shoppers praised the young chefs' confidence, skill and enthusiasm.

"It's great to see young people working with fresh vegetables; so many of them are into the fast foods," said Lori Hoyt, 73. "This is wonderful to start teaching them early about good, fresh stuff."

This was not the first time the young chefs had been exposed to quality cooking.

Jeremy Salamon, 13, brought experience from cooking at home. Others, such as Nicole Roscigno, 14, drew ideas for their dishes from Italy itself.

"I got my inspiration from something I had in Italy on a Tuscany trip I took with Dorette last year," she explained.

While all the young cooks used traditional bruschetta ingredients such as basil, tomato and baguettes, many called for more-unusual additions.

"They really know their ingredients," Neal said. "They asked for arugula and okra. Even though we're in the South, not a lot of teenagers know about okra."

Teenagers who want to become cooks and restaurant owners do, however, and Snover is trying to help them realize their dream. After all, when teenagers pronounce "bruschetta" with the "sk" sound instead of the more common -- but wrong -- "sh" sound, they know something about Italian food.