Kids Have Palates Too!
I started thinking about teaching kids to cook right after I graduated from culinary school. I didn’t have kids at the time (I have two now), but I’d always loved working with children and had come up with what I thought was a great concept for a children’s cookbook. By that time I’d written enough books to know that understanding the competition was essential, so I started doing some research.
I was surprised to learn how simplistic and silly most of them were. Cartoon fruits and vegetables with carefully crafted personalities clearly took more time to conceive than the recipes, which were composed of canned foods thrown together and, at best, heated in the microwave. The rest didn’t involve cooking at all—sandwiches with silly faces, tortilla pizzas, fruit kebabs, and the old standby, ants on a log, were ubiquitous. I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t figure out why parents would invest their time or money in cookbooks that aren’t about cooking. I think underneath it all a lot of people believed, and still do, that children aren’t interested in cooking real food.
Children’s cookbooks have changed a bit since then, but I’ve noticed that most people are skeptical when I tell them I teach cooking classes to three year olds. When they ask what we cook they grow wide-eyed with disbelief. The truth is that the three year olds are some of my best students. One reason is that they are virtually fearless. (Which is also the reason they should never be trusted in a kitchen alone!) Some may have begun to develop a few idiosyncratic eating habits, but in general they are still willing to try new things. One of their recent favorites was Blueberry Clafoutis. The five to nine year olds will consent to trying new things if they’ve had a hand in making them. Recently they loved eating Mediterranean roasted vegetable sandwiches with fresh basil and mozzarella on bread we made in class that day. Another time, on a whim, I brought in some Gruyere cheese for their roasted root vegetable galettes and they went absolutely crazy for it, both on and off the galettes. Yesterday we made Filipino-style empanadas, loaded with garlic, onions, peas, and carrots, and seasoned with soy sauce and rice vinegar. The majority loved it.
Not every kid likes everything we cook and I’m okay with it. When that happens we engage in conversation about it and I remind them that the important thing is they made something new and tasted it. Sometimes they surprise me and like something I don’t expect (like caramelized onions). It’s my job as their teacher to help them expand their palates, and it’s satisfying to see their excitement and pride as they discover new flavors and become more independent in the kitchen.
I haven’t gotten around to writing that cookbook yet, but after everything I’ve learned from my students over the past few years, one thing is certain—when I do finally put that book together, there won’t be a single smiley faced sandwich or ant on a log in it because I know that kids enjoy complex flavors on their plates too!
Chef Lisa Holmes
The Childrens Culinary Academy
Tel. 774.392.1711
www.childrensculinary.com
Books by Lisa Holmes
Bitter Harvest
In Mother’s Kitchen
Lunch Lessons