Now You're Cooking: Building Kitchen Confidence for Little Folk
It's never too soon to acquaint your nippers with the joys of cooking. Start them early on the path to a skill they'll have for life
I once sat in on a school holiday cooking class, held on a New Zealand farm. The teacher told me she was dismayed how many of her students had never seen garlic or didn’t know what bees had to do with honey. As the day unfolded, 20 excited six- to eight-year-olds kneaded bread dough with their feet, ancient Egyptian-style, melted mountains of chocolate and goggled at what happened when they beat an egg white. For the finale, the teacher brought a honeycomb from her beehives and dumped it on the bench, with a bee or two still clinging. Kitchen and kids were covered with flour and smears of chocolate and they wolfed down their bread with honey scraped straight from the comb. The level of chatter and hilarity was high and it was one of the most fun-filled days I have spent. I took away an indisputable fact: kids love to play with food. Why not channel this enthusiasm into a skill to serve them well, no matter what’s in their future? See how to launch them on a delicious journey into the absorbing world of the kitchen.
Modern kitchen design frequently includes an island as a multi-purpose practical and social space. It usually becomes a domestic focal point for homework, drawing, reading, games, snacks, casual meals and cooking tasks, and provides an interactive hub for the whole family. Making food preparation a family-inclusive time, centred on the island, is a great bonder. It’s likely that just being around the pleasant bustle of cooking activity will turn interested onlookers into hands-on helpers.
More: Key Measurements to Consider When Designing the Perfect Kitchen Island
More: Key Measurements to Consider When Designing the Perfect Kitchen Island
Stress hygiene habits
Before a helping session, make a few simple cleanliness rules. Washing hands before handling food is a must. Don’t put licked fingers and utensils back into food that others will eat. Wear shoes. No climbing on the bench. Get budding cooks their own apron and tie back long hair.
Before a helping session, make a few simple cleanliness rules. Washing hands before handling food is a must. Don’t put licked fingers and utensils back into food that others will eat. Wear shoes. No climbing on the bench. Get budding cooks their own apron and tie back long hair.
Set up a work spot they can call their own
Designate a bench or island section where they can do their tasks, or set up a small table outside the main work area. This will help contain mess and stop too much moving around the kitchen, which can be hazardous when hot liquids are around. Tell them it’s their spot and it’s up to them to clean up when they have finished helping you.
TIP: Raise their height with a wide-based chair. A chair is preferable to a stool or box because there is less risk of falls or tipping.
Designate a bench or island section where they can do their tasks, or set up a small table outside the main work area. This will help contain mess and stop too much moving around the kitchen, which can be hazardous when hot liquids are around. Tell them it’s their spot and it’s up to them to clean up when they have finished helping you.
TIP: Raise their height with a wide-based chair. A chair is preferable to a stool or box because there is less risk of falls or tipping.
Here is a neat idea for fledgling assistants: a niche in the kitchen island or a wooden box screwed or hooked onto it at kiddy height. Keep a stash of their personal utensils here, like aprons, plastic utensils, paper chef’s hats, and their favourite recipes.
TIP: Plastic serrated knives are safe for most small children to handle. Try your cookshop or toyshops, which may sell kid’s cooking sets. Don’t let them near metal knives, even blunt ones – the worst cuts happen with blunt knives.
TIP: Plastic serrated knives are safe for most small children to handle. Try your cookshop or toyshops, which may sell kid’s cooking sets. Don’t let them near metal knives, even blunt ones – the worst cuts happen with blunt knives.
Wouldn’t any child love to help Mum or Dad in this upbeat kitchen? Even without rainbow-hued cabinet doors, you could label a low cupboard or shelf where your little chef can keep his or her equipment.
Make a safe workspace
Kitchens are minefields, but that shouldn’t deter you from having young helpers. Make certain areas no-go zones, like the stove and oven. Keep visual connection at all times – don’t leave them unattended. Supply plastic and wooden utensils, not glass or metal. Let them work with cold or lukewarm ingredients, never hot stuff. Always turn handles of pots and pans so they don’t protrude past the edge of the cooking surface and use rear hotplates when possible. Keep sharp utensils out of reach.
TIP: Cooktops with top or rear controls are a good safety feature if you have tinies in the kitchen. Gas hotplates are harder to turn on than electric knobs, as they often need a two-phase action or have safety switches.
Kitchens are minefields, but that shouldn’t deter you from having young helpers. Make certain areas no-go zones, like the stove and oven. Keep visual connection at all times – don’t leave them unattended. Supply plastic and wooden utensils, not glass or metal. Let them work with cold or lukewarm ingredients, never hot stuff. Always turn handles of pots and pans so they don’t protrude past the edge of the cooking surface and use rear hotplates when possible. Keep sharp utensils out of reach.
TIP: Cooktops with top or rear controls are a good safety feature if you have tinies in the kitchen. Gas hotplates are harder to turn on than electric knobs, as they often need a two-phase action or have safety switches.
I adore dogs but they don’t belong in the cooking area. Kids might be tempted to pat the dog while they are touching food. I just can’t reconcile boiling liquids, hot baking trays, slippery floors and lots of enticing odours with a dog toddling around. They are a trip hazard and don’t wash their paws before dinner. Some dogs have even been known to snatch whole chickens off benches and decamp to the most inaccessible part of the garden. So sorry, but out, damned Spot!
Be a sneaky teacher
Kitchens can be classrooms for reading, writing and maths. By the age of about three, kids are starting to identify different colours. Reinforce this emerging skill by playing colour games with food: what colour is this carrot? Pass me something green, put five blue and six red berries in a bowl, and so on.
Kitchens can be classrooms for reading, writing and maths. By the age of about three, kids are starting to identify different colours. Reinforce this emerging skill by playing colour games with food: what colour is this carrot? Pass me something green, put five blue and six red berries in a bowl, and so on.
As they start to read, write and do simple maths, set up your wee chef with a recipe book that you are cooking from and get them to see if they can read out the ingredients. This is a chance to introduce weighing and measuring basics too, like spooning out two cups of flour, reading the numbers on the scales or putting three spoonfuls of sugar into a bowl.
Ask them to write or draw things on a kitchen chalkboard, like items for a shopping list, some of their favourite dishes or names and pictures of food they like.
Reinforce reading ability by sending your helper to find ingredients like spices in the pantry or cupboard.
TIP: Smell is an integral part of flavour and cooking. Encourage young ones to sniff various spices, fresh herbs and fruits to familiarise themselves with different flavours.
TIP: Smell is an integral part of flavour and cooking. Encourage young ones to sniff various spices, fresh herbs and fruits to familiarise themselves with different flavours.
Get their help in keeping an eye on the clock and letting you know, say, when to take a cake out of the oven. It will give them a sense of responsibility and some number and time-telling practice.
Grow stuff
Demonstrate the miracle of a few tiny seeds producing something for dinner. A variety of salad greens and sprouts – alfalfa, mizuna, lettuce, sunflower, pea, rocket – can be sprouted in jars indoors or grown in a planter box outside. Let the kids do the work and own the project – just add a little guidance and stir occasionally. They’ll be so proud when their first lettuce goes into a salad!
Read: Easy Vegetable Gardens for Black Thumbs
Demonstrate the miracle of a few tiny seeds producing something for dinner. A variety of salad greens and sprouts – alfalfa, mizuna, lettuce, sunflower, pea, rocket – can be sprouted in jars indoors or grown in a planter box outside. Let the kids do the work and own the project – just add a little guidance and stir occasionally. They’ll be so proud when their first lettuce goes into a salad!
Read: Easy Vegetable Gardens for Black Thumbs
Help them plant some weird and wonderful container vegies, like these Chinese eggplants. Tomatillos are as simple to grow in pots as tomatoes, and they’ll love the rusty, papery skin and enjoy eating them. Asparagus will give them a thrill when it pokes its spooky green fingers through the soil.
If you have a vegie patch, get down and dirty with the kids when you harvest. If you don’t have your own patch, join a community garden and take them with you to do some digging and picking. It will show them that food doesn’t always come frozen in a plastic bag.
Challenge their tastebuds
Children’s palates are wonderful – a baby’s palate has 30,000 tastebuds. As adults, two thirds of these have succumbed to all the vindaloos, wine, hot drinks and ice-cream we have consumed, and have left the building. Young children have intense taste perception, which is why you get wrinkled noses and ‘yucks’ with strongly flavoured food. Use kitchen time to introduce small tastes of this and that, starting with blander foods. It will expand their eating repertoire and lead to greater willingness to experiment.
Children’s palates are wonderful – a baby’s palate has 30,000 tastebuds. As adults, two thirds of these have succumbed to all the vindaloos, wine, hot drinks and ice-cream we have consumed, and have left the building. Young children have intense taste perception, which is why you get wrinkled noses and ‘yucks’ with strongly flavoured food. Use kitchen time to introduce small tastes of this and that, starting with blander foods. It will expand their eating repertoire and lead to greater willingness to experiment.
Suit jobs to their ability
Start them on activities that are simple, tactile and fun. Up the degree of difficulty as they become more confident. Here are some to try:
Start them on activities that are simple, tactile and fun. Up the degree of difficulty as they become more confident. Here are some to try:
- Washing vegies and fruit – set them up at the sink or with a basin and a soft scrubbing brush
- Cutting and squashing soft foods like berries, cheese, tomatoes or cooked vegetables, using plastic utensils
- Shelling peas – turn it into fun games, like who can shell 10 peas the fastest; who can catch a pea in their mouth
- Snipping herbs with children’s scissors
- Mixing icing and batter
- Buttering bread
- Cracking and beating eggs, painting pastry with a pastry brush
- Cutting dough with cookie cutters, making funny pastry shapes, and sprinkling nuts, hundreds-and-thousands, choc chips and coconut
Leave the scene clean
After all the squidgy, sticky, floury fun, make sure they don’t just walk away and leave you to clean up. Impress on them the importance of tidying their work station, wiping their bench, disposing of rubbish and putting away tools as the finishing touch to kitchen time.
After all the squidgy, sticky, floury fun, make sure they don’t just walk away and leave you to clean up. Impress on them the importance of tidying their work station, wiping their bench, disposing of rubbish and putting away tools as the finishing touch to kitchen time.
They can help with table setting, serving food onto plates and carrying (light, cold and unbreakable) food bowls to the table.
And now for the reward!
Seeing family members enjoying something they have – literally – had a hand in is guaranteed to give them a sense of achievement and make them want to go back for a second helping of kitchen fun. Praise their efforts. They’ll also have more interest in eating food they have been involved in preparing.
TELL US
Is cooking a skill you would like your kids to learn? Do you have any tricks to share with us?
MORE
Are Your Children Missing Out on Child’s Play?
De-Stress Your Kids by Organising Your Home
What’s Your Kitchen Decorating Style?
Seeing family members enjoying something they have – literally – had a hand in is guaranteed to give them a sense of achievement and make them want to go back for a second helping of kitchen fun. Praise their efforts. They’ll also have more interest in eating food they have been involved in preparing.
TELL US
Is cooking a skill you would like your kids to learn? Do you have any tricks to share with us?
MORE
Are Your Children Missing Out on Child’s Play?
De-Stress Your Kids by Organising Your Home
What’s Your Kitchen Decorating Style?
If your kids see you enjoying yourself while you cook, they’ll be curious to know why. Let them see you appreciating good cooking smells and tastes. Once you have piqued their interest in the fun you are apparently having, it will be easy to persuade them to join the party.