Can Children Appreciate Gourmet?
by Jen Byer on Nov 27, 2008 with 0 Comments
In order to cook and enjoy a gourmet dinner is it necessary to do so only when the kids are spending the night at a friends? I went from cooking a meal for my husband and me and a seperate meal for our daughter to making one meal we could all enjoy. The secret: including her in my joy of cooking.
Yes. And no. A critic once reviewed a restaurant in NYC that catered to the bland palette of children. At the time my daughter was three years old and would only eat jelly and honey sandwiches and so I assumed the critic just didn’t understand life with a toddler.
But something about that critic’s argument stuck with me. Months passed and the magazine was erroneously tossed out. I began to wonder if making a separate dinner for her and then for my husband and me was a mistake. Then I found a cooking class for three to five-year-olds and I decided, as silly as it sounded, to try it out.
The chef who taught the course was young, energetic, and a vegetarian who stressed the importance of using good quality ingredients. They cooked with organic ingredients and meditated while their projects baked in the oven. At first I thought it was just a fun experiment.
Then the class made smoothies. She proudly refilled her cup for me to taste her concoction. It was quite good, but that wasn’t the impressive part. When she rattled off the ingredients she mentioned leaves. The chef explained that the “leaves” were raw spinach. And my picky little cook loved it.
That did it for me. Cook with your kids and you can be a part of their love and learning of good quality food. Now, one of the best times of the day is when my daughter and I cook dinner together. She’s five and loves being in the kitchen. When she helps fix a meal I am guaranteed she’ll always, at the least, taste it. That doesn’t mean she likes everything we make, the butternut squash bisque didn’t go over well. That’s not important. She’s learning to taste new things and is aware of all the wonderful things to be made.
She pulls up her stool and stands ready for directions. She pulls leaves off herbs, cuts up fruit or soft vegetables (with a plastic lettuce knife), and measures out teaspoons and cups. She knows about rosemary and tarragon, spinach and green leaf lettuce, carrots and bell peppers. And thanks to grandma, she still gets mac and cheese out of the blue box.
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Published in: Cooking
