Teaching children to cook

A friend asked about how to go about involving young children in cooking, and when I started to answer, I realized that I had a lot more to say than just a FB comment. And since Y. made some absolutely delicious steamed buns for Chinese New Year that I wanted to share with you, this seemed like a good time to write a longer post about children and cooking  

First the baozi (or banh bao, we use the terms fairly interchangeably.)

There were four steamer trays full, plus three more that didn't fit. It's rare that we have enough steamed buns to satisfy everyone. My only contribution was getting down a pan and answering a question about which tool to use for one step. 

Now onto children cooking. I'll start with what I wrote in my comment and then continue.

For really young ones I stick to things that have limited mess potential.. ripping lettuce, kneading a little bit of dough, slicing soft fruit such as bananas with a dull knife, etc. The trick is to find small tasks to occupy them while they're "helping" you in the kitchen. They're going to want to be there anyway, so it is easier to incorporate them into the process. (But this only works well if you include the extra time in your expectation for how long a task will take. Toddlers... well most children, but especially toddlers... will not be rushed and you can make yourself crazy otherwise.) I also really love the book Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen. It has pictures for each step of the process so preschoolers can feel as though they are reading and following the directions by themselves. 

Continuing on...

By inviting children into the kitchen to help and to learn, there will be messes. Anything you are doing will take longer. If these are your expectations at the outset, the whole process will feel easier because you didn't expect it to be otherwise. There are some things you can do to mitigate the mess. Using trays or rimmed baking sheets can be a useful work surface with the rims or edges stopping things from rolling off the table. Hand over hand when doing something such as stirring or mixing can both control the chaos as well as help guide young muscles in how a particular task feels. A good, sturdy stool or chair can give a stable surface while working at the kitchen counter. 

Child sized tools also go a long way towards helping a child be successful with a task. I loved looking through Montessori supply catalogues because they were a treasure trove of decent child-sized tools. It's where I first discovered the Y shaped vegetable peelers. They are significantly easier for a child to use and they are now the only ones we have in the house because we all prefer them now. 

We have always encouraged children's independence in the kitchen. Preschoolers can certainly learn to carefully cut softer food with a small knife and supervision. They know this is serious, real work that has special rules. If a child couldn't follow the rules to be safe, then we stopped the activity. It certainly wasn't something that anyone got angry about, it just was not an option at that moment. As a child became adept at one skill, we would move on to another. 

Once a child could read, the kitchen opened up even more because recipes could be read and followed. Usually the process started with watching a parent make something, then helping the parent, moving to reading the recipe and making it themselves with a parent watching, finally moving to being under. But this doesn't have to happen for everything. Once you've figured out how to make one kind of cookie, it is pretty simple to figure out other types. 

Between 8 and 10 years old, most children here can fix their own breakfast and lunch. Eggs are probably one of the first things we show them how to cook on their own. (Yes, pretty much all of them were allowed to use the stove at this age.) In some seasons, we would have a rotating schedule of who was on for helping with dinner preparations. I would get an extra pair of hands and they would get time doing something with me and learning new kitchen skills. By around 13, the previous bread baker is ready to pass on the job and the 12 or 13 year old is ready to take on the job, though sometimes a child was skipped if they really weren't interested. (Y. is our current bread baker, but with no one younger who wants to take that job on, I may have to become the bread baker again. I'm not overly enthused about the thought.) 

What are some other things I try to make sure each of my children know? How to make a white sauce because it is the basis for so many other things. How to make a pie crust. How to cook several dinners on their own. Pretty much, when they are confronted with a kitchen of ingredients I want them to have some idea as to how to use them. 

But to do all of this, cooking needs to be seen as something positive and enjoyable. We try to make dinner time, including the preparation, a positive experience. We put on music, we talk, we laugh, and many people pitch in. But to get here, it does start early. Some questions to ponder:

• Is the kitchen an enjoyable place to be during meal preparations, or is it rushed and stressful? 
• Is trying new foods seen as a positive adventure? 
• Are children learning new skills allowed the time they need (they will take a lot longer to do a task than an adult) and the freedom to be a bit messy?
• Are ingredients fair game to adventurous cooking children or are they off limits? (My children are pretty good at knowing what is a staple that is on hand for general use and what things were bought specifically for a meal, asking if they aren't sure.) 
• Do children see the adults around them modeling cooking skills? 
• Is food that is prepared shown appreciation by family members?

The emotional atmosphere of the kitchen and the importance given to what happens there is probably the greatest indicator of how cooking and food preparation are viewed by the children of the house. And if you as the adult feel as though you wish you knew more, then use your children as an excuse to gain those skills. Learn together! Will everything you make be wonderful? Heavens no! Every so often I'll try a new recipe and it will be... not great. It happens. But it can also be a chance to show that we all make mistakes; it's part of the learning process.

Really, the very short version of this is have fun together, don't be afraid to let your child try to do things, and messes can always be cleaned up. But really, have fun.