Kids get to mix

WHETHER it’s chopping, stirring, cracking an egg or tasting, children love ‘helping’ in the kitchen, and they are doing so younger.

Most children’s parents learnt to cook at age 10, but children are now learning at age six.

Research by BBC Good Food magazine found that only 40% of parents think their cooking skills were better than their children’s at the same age, and blame this on their less-relaxed parents.

Children’s cookery expert, Annabel Karmel, who has written, Kids in the Kitchen, says children can start mixing food, rolling out dough, and cutting out pastry shapes from the age of three.

“It’s like them using Play-Doh, except they don’t eat that,” she says. “It’s a great way of bonding, and a fantastic way of learning, by counting and understanding time, in a fun way. It should always be fun.”

Because children have a short attention span, parents should encourage them to make things that take no more than half an hour, like Rice Krispie cakes, cupcakes or wraps. She says if children are fussy eaters, cooking might help them develop a more varied taste.

Children should initially try simple cookery, like grating cheese, making scrambled eggs, cracking eggs, using a sieve, kneading dough, squeezing oranges and whisking egg whites.

“They could use the egg whites to make a meringue, or the orange juice to make a smoothie,” she says.

They can rub butter and flour together to make a crumble, crush biscuits in a plastic bag to make a cheesecake base, and make their own tomato sauce for pasta, or their own pizzas.

While cooking has been traditionally regarded as a girl’s task, Karmel says boys should be taught to cook just as well as girls — after all, many celebrity chefs are male and their TV shows are inspiring youngsters to cook.

“The days when it was just girls in the kitchen have gone — there are so many male chefs now,” says Karmel.

“If you get a boy to cook something he really likes like a chocolate brownie, he’ll get engaged with cooking.”

“It’s a life skill they need — otherwise, when they leave home they’ll be reliant on junk food and have a really bad diet. It will impact on their health if they can’t cook.”

If they learn to cook, they could be the next Jamie Oliver. He started cooking at a young age in his parents’ pub, and told BBC Good Food magazine: “My dad put me on the veg section — I was peeling first, then later chopping, when I was safe with knives.

“These days, my kids love cooking, especially the two older girls. We’re always making bread and cakes together, and they now do all the salad dressings.”