Emma Kate Shaver, 3, watches the Food Network regularly and knows all about its chefs. She helps her parents bake cookies and wash the dishes.

"She says, 'Now I have three options,' " said her father, Chris Shaver, of Roanoke. " 'I can be a cooker, a baker or a washer.' "

On Saturday, Emma Kate was one of 35 children to make animal-shaped pizzas at the Young Chefs Academy in Salem. They paid $10 each as part of a fundraising effort by the Junior League of the Roanoke Valley to get a playground built at Mill Mountain Zoo.

"It was something we wanted to incorporate for a while," said Michaela Pace-Wilson, the zoo's business manager. "It's just something else that enhances that visit to the zoo. It's part of the learning process."

The playground will be appropriately animal-themed and should be completed by May. It will be 50 feet long and 25 feet wide, to be placed in the area where an old administration office trailer used to be, Pace-Wilson said.

She said there also have been talks about replacing a long-running prairie dog exhibit with the new addition, but a decision has not been made on that.

Last summer, the zoo applied for help with the playground project and got picked among several organizations as the annual project for the Junior League's Provisional Class (the position occupied by new members), Pace-Wilson said. The group's aim is to raise between $15,000 and $20,000 for the playground.

"We felt that with the Mill Mountain Zoo being a landmark, we wanted to basically refurbish it, make some fun new additions with an educational twist," said Pamela Colbert, the Provisional Class' special events coordinator.

The Young Chefs Academy donated its staff, supplies and kitchen for the effort, and the entire $350 raised Saturday will go into the playground project, Colbert said.

"It's a good cause, a very good cause," said Barbara Filip, owner of the Young Chefs' Salem franchise. "Plus, which kid doesn't like to cook? It's also a chance for our chefs to show off their experience."

Colbert said having children make animal-shaped pizza sounded like a creative, interactive way to raise the funds while encouraging them to go to the zoo. Children need to get out and play more, she said, instead of being hooked on TV or video games.

Young Chefs teaches kitchen skills to children ages 4 to 16, and nine or 10 of its students helped out at Saturday's event, Filip said. One of them was Abbie Thompson, 7, who picked up the younger Emma Kate affectionately and had her sit in her lap while the 3-year-old waited for her pizza to get ready.

With her big blue eyes and a striped pink and yellow outfit, Emma Kate had walked in earlier and introduced herself at the front desk, getting a badge with her name on it.

She sat on a stool before a big metal table, her feet hanging, and used a roller to smooth out a piece of dough. She molded it into a shape vaguely resembling a dog and spread cheese and pepperoni all over it, under the supervision of Young Chefs staffers, who then put the dough in the oven.

Her parents, Chris and Katherine Shaver, looked on from a nearby table.

In the end, the young cook settled down to a glass of milk and slices of the pepperoni pizza she helped prepare. Her favorite chef?

"My mommy," said Emma Kate.

Katherine Shaver beamed.