My kids spend a fair amount of time in the kitchen, helping prepare our family’s meals or whipping up something they imagined or read about or watched.  Partially because I need their help, partially because I want them to know how to cook for themselves, partially because I’d like to cook less often myself, partially because they actually enjoy it and partially because I think it’s really important for them to learn about food – how to create it, where it comes from, ways not to waste it, etc. etc. etc.

I don’t remember a time when kids weren’t underfoot and around in the kitchen since their births.  Back in the day we had this amazing and gigantic contraption that kept the toddlers “safe” and nearby while helping prep food.  It was like some crazy stool slash wooden cube slash container slash square I don’t know what.  I can’t recall where we bought it – I’m guessing one of those One Step magazines back when we only had dial up internet and had never heard of Amazon Prime – or what happened to it when the kids outgrew it.

I just know the kids have always been “helping” and lending a hand or a grubby finger.   And now the kids routinely cook entire meals, fancy desserts, regular breakfasts and whatever needs to be baked or cooked or prepared.  The three oldest – at 11, 12 and 13 – are completely capable of delicate and detailed recipes that involve the stove top, the oven, the Ninja, sharp knives, the deep fryer, the KitchenAid, the griddle, you name it.

Here’s a few ideas to help you get your kids cooking and helping and serving your family well.

1.  Relax.  No.  I’m not kidding.  For the love.  Just relax.  It’s only food.  It’s only a little mess.  Everything can be washed.  It’s going to be okay.  Things WILL get messy.  Methods will not be the same as yours.  That’s alright.  You can kindly guide and show a few helpful tips here and there, but also – it’s FINE if your son wants to cut an apple differently than you do.  So what if your daughter adds in the ingredients in a style that your momma never did and neither do you?  They will find their own way.  They must find their own way.  And it’ll be a good way.  A perfectly fine way.  It’ll work.  Or it won’t.  And they’ll figure it out.  And they’ll like you and you’ll like you a whole lot better if you just let them make mistakes and find the best way through a touch of trial and error.
2. Talk about food.  Read cookbooks together.  Watch cooking shows.  Stop at the cooking supplies aisles in the store.  Talk about what you eat and what you like and what is fun to cook and what is a challenge.  We check out cookbooks from the library a lot.  We love Food Network.  We analyze our meals at restaurants.  We compare what we like and what we didn’t.  It’s fun.  And it encourages your kids to closely observe taste and texture.  (Don’t do this at a friend’s house for dinner.  Then you cross the lines of poor manners.  And you might not get an invitation back.)  Make it fun.  Make your kitchen and/or dinner table a space for exploring different styles and cuisines.
3. Get out of the kitchen.  As soon as you can safely trust your children to be on their own in the kitchen, leave the room!  Stay within hearing distance to answer basic questions and to help put the fire on the stove out if need be, but go away from the scene.  It’s impossible to do a good job when you are being scrutinized.  I know I can’t stand that – pretty sure my kids don’t care for it either.  Give them the guidance that they need and then let them do what you’ve asked them to do.
4. Let them be the expert.  Help your child discover one particular item that they especially love to bake or to create.  Help them become an expert with much practice of that particular dish.  Share their creations with family and friends so they have a chance to bake it or prepare it often enough to understand it and to make it both delicious and uniquely theirs.  And then brag on them a little.  Let it be known in your family that your daughter is the Official Pancake Artist.  We’ve got an expert in scones and one in chocolate chip muffins and one with potato soup and a peanut butter pie expert and a biscuit professional.  (Clearly we have a love of all the gluten.)  I’m working up toward helping to inspire a pasta-from-scratch expert for purely self-serving reasons.  And, you know, I should seek out a burger pro too.  I need more burgers in my life I think.
5. Keep your kitchen stocked.  You can plan meals – and it’s really helpful when you do to manage preparations and keeping a budget – but it’s also great to be ready when inspiration strikes.  You’ve just watched a cool show and you want to make your own fried rice balls.  Go!  Keeping basic ingredients in your pantry is really helpful so you can “yes” when your son asks if he can make chocolate chip cookies with salted caramel.  (My son has never asked that.  I’m just dreaming.
6. Let it be a mess!  Yeah.  This is pretty much idea number one again with different words.  You can train the kids to not toss flour in their hair and to not slop milk across the counter.  They can learn to clean up as they go and to put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.  Certainly they can.  And they should.  But if it’s a burdensome chore to follow YOUR rules while they learn to cook, they aren’t likely to come running when you ask for their help in the kitchen.  Of course they are not as tidy as you are.  One – they just don’t care as much as you do.  Why would they?  And two – they are not grown ups.  They are kids.  So calm yourself down about the tidiness of your spoon drawer and the proper way to clean the stovetop and just let your kids learn how to make food.  You don’t want to send that talented daughter of yours to college and hear her tell her friends, “Boil pasta?  I’ve never done that.”   And your son shouldn’t find himself hungry at his new apartment post graduation and be forced to eat fast food because he can’t prep a little chicken and rice and veggies.  (I don’t care if he goes to the fast food place, I just don’t want him to go there because he’s helpless at providing a meal for himself.)

What other ways do you help encourage your young chefs in training?

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