My dd is very interested in wanting to be on a cooking show. My question is, how on earth do these kids get so good? I don't even know how to confit fish, but these 9 year olds can...lol. How do you allow kids in your kitchen? I always seem too busy to allow them, and she obviously wants to learn. I cannot find kids cooking classes anyplace, either. Not even Michaels has anything but cupcake decorating. LOL. She's more interested in cooking camp, I think, (She's 7)
I would think the kids on the shows parents and/or grandparents are professionals, they have to learn from somewhere. Where do you live? I live near Chicago and they have a few places that have kids cooking classes.
The kids on those shows seem like they're a bunch of little smartmouths, too. That kind of kid probably has parents who have told them that they love to cook and fawn over everything they do, like the ones who tell their kids they love to swim and sign them up for ninety swim camps. The kid doesn't know any better, and since they're getting praise for it they'll go along with it whether they like it or not. Until they get to an age where they say no, I'm not doing this anymore, thanks anyway.
I'd be willing to bet they've been trained by the parents to cook since they were really little, which just means that the parents have a lot of time on their hands. I have no doubt that they also give them a lot of behind-the-scenes tips and help on those shows that we don't see on camera, if the "reality" of them is anything like cake show reality!
Maybe you could get a basic cookbook and learn some techniques with her. When you make dinner have her help you, and she might decide that she either loves it or it's too much work. My daughter says she doesn't want to decorate cakes because it's too much work, so she's seen the truth!
Thanks. We live in metro Detroit, and there's not much around. One college is offering a 2 hour class that I signed her up for. I realize that I need to allow her to help more, I feel bad because between homework and my job, dinner is usually rushed and I don't let her help much because it takes too long. I need more patience. :) She begged for a chef hat for Christmas.
There's a book set that comes with a chef's hat. I have the package at home and I can't look up the ages. They're stories about countries, intertwined with food and they have two recipes of the specific country at the end. I read somewhere that 7-year-olds love the stories in the series, and the recipes. I just got it to give it to little girl who wants to start learning, too.
Recipe for Adventure 1-4 box set. Giada De Laurentiis.
@sweetideas , could you do cooking activities with her on the weekend when you're not trying to get so much done during the "witching hour" of 5-7pm? That's the worst time of day to try to do anything...You could even do some cook-ahead meals that you can freeze and heat up later in the week so that you don't have to cook as much during the week. there are a couple of cookbooks based on bulk cooking where you do an entire month's worth of dinners in one day, then it frees up your evenings during the week. I'm not saying you have to go that crazy, but even doing one or two ahead of time would make it easier during the week. I have one cookbook called Fix It And Forget It that has a bunch of recipes in it that freeze well, and the author goes through her whole process of how she cooks once a month and then freezes everything.
Sorry it took so long to reply...for a long time I wasn't able to. I took some ideas and I did get her a class at our community college. I also found a cooking store that isn't close but they have a week-long camp in the summer. I am hoping that with her cooking camp which teaches cutting and food safety she will be able to help mom out more. LOL. I have been having her prep some more veggies. Thanks for the advice!
Haha! That's right, put her to work! ;) That could work out nicely for all involved!
good for you and good for her! you're the best mom --
and in related news --
the little girl (11 12 ish?) across the street knocked on my door monday to borrow my sieve -- she's got this cool cake book and wants to make macarons -- well sure -- no worries i got several sieves to choose from -- so that morphed into her coming over to have me help her make 'em because i have all the tools etc.
i explained that i had never made macarons before and they can stump the above average brilliant baker and blablabla -- long story short IT WORKED! i couldn't even look at my oven to watch them baking so she took a picture of it and said see they're rising they have the foot -- hahahaha
so we did good they did brown a bit but not a bad result at all for the first time -- i wanna try pastrybaglady's panda macarons one day soon --
so she's coming back with another project in a few weeks...
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