I'm kinda mixed on this. The article mentioned that one kid who's trying to be a critic - I just kept on thinking "this kid's a d-bag in training" when I first read about him. I don't think kids should be spotlighted as taste makers / trendsetters because they don't have the experience or credentials - but then again, what makes a critic experienced? I often take the advice of Yelpers or "untrained" critics for restaurants because my palate tastes are more like theirs, than say a classically trained chef. I think I just have a lotta hate for that one kid.

As for allowing kids to make things - A'la Yummy Yummy Citrus Boy - I would encourage that to no end. The writer of the Slate article seems to miss the whole point of the show. It wasn't about this kid making recipes for the rest of us to consume, but a clever way to get this child and other children to get in the kitchen and experiment. I saw that recipe - it looked gross - but if I were there, I'd eat a whole plate of those cookies because that child made them with his whole heart. The writer is kind of a ding dong for actually taking Julian's recipes seriously.

While I generally find Ms. Schrambling amusing, I think it's a bit ridiculous to criticize a five year old for a recipe he clearly did not develop on his own. While I agree that no five year old deserves a cookbook deal, this whole "kiddie food movement" is hardly a bad thing. Going along with the whole RR phenomenon, if it gets people, child or adult, out of the drive thru and into the kitchen, who really cares? Discouraging a child from doing something he shows interest in is perhaps the most counterproductive idea I have ever heard. I should take my son's books away--he can't really read them anyway...

Either way, palatte is a personal thing--if my kid wants to eat raisins in his bisque, so what?

Children should not be used on television. We should not use children to sell things. They should not have an economical value.

I do think children should be able to cook and it is important for them to participate in the process. Just because kids tend to favor one extreme or another doesn't mean they are wrong.

Slate's so smart...just kidding.

If kids start cooking now, future generations may have the opportunity to be raised eating good meals at home.

I remember being made fun of by a teacher when I bought a microwave cookbook at the book fair. Kitchens are a great lab for kids.

I read Schrambling's article and gave out a hearty "hear hear". I think her point was that kids are kids, and as such should be learning from adults, or at least exploring under their guidance. A lot of cooking *is* dangerous: sharp knives, open flame, hot ovens and such.

Until a certain age, children need to be supervised closely in that environment (I grew up baking and cooking and am a very good cook today - my creativity was hardly quashed at all by the guidance my mom gave me).

I think other point, which again I second: is that we're all a little too taken by the novelty of kids and food. A fourteen-year old doesn't have the life and culinary experience to be an informed critic (that said, I know plenty of thirty-somethings who are equally unqualified). A five year old doesn't have an educated palate (although he may have a naturally good one).

Finally, by making these kids into media darlings we turn their enthusiasm into something special, when it really shouldn't be. Children *should* love food, love to eat, love to be with their families. They have to be culinary savants, they just have to be kids full of childlike curiosity. Good parents will encourage curiosity without expecting their child to become the next Zagat or Rachel Ray.

I think I have consciously stayed away from this. On one hand I hate the idea of kiddie exploitation like this, on the other hand I love the idea of kids being knowledgeable about food.

I will admit that the precocious-child-as-food-critic thing definitely rubs me the wrong way. I can't take it seriously. Then again, I don't have kids so maybe I'm not the intended audience.

On the flip side of this coin, there is a show on my local PBS station called "Chef's A'Field" that I rather like. The show often features chefs and their children as they visit farms and dairies and the like to see where food comes from. Then the chefs bring their children into the kitchen with them to make food with the items they picked up on their field trip. I like it because it's educational for both children and adults.

As far as getting sick of feeding kids one thing while adults eat another? Heck yeah, I'm sick of it! I volunteer on Wednesday nights as a "Table Parent" at a church function called LOGOs. In years past the function was held in the basement where we had a dedicated kitchen where we could feed the kids burgers, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, tacos, etc. This year, the basement is being renovated so we moved up to the gym and we have to share the kitchen with the adult family dinner fellowship. We started out serving the kids what the adults were eating. I'm not talking gourmet food here, just regular grown-up food. The kids refused to eat it because it wasn't "kid food." Parents complained and we had to revert back to serving kid food which meant that our single kitchen had to prepare 2 meals. As a parent, at my own house, I prepare one meal. I will try to make sure that it's something that my 3 year old might like but I won't go out of my way to make "kid food" just for her. We eat what all of us like. Catering to juvenile tastes rather than expanding palates is definitely not the way to go, in my opinion.

Sorry this was so long. This is a bit of a soapbox issue for me. :)

The kids don't bother me. It is all the idiots taking snapshots of food at restaurants to post to their precious blogs who drive me up the wall.

Posting to chowhound is one thing. Obsessively chronically every morsel is another. I am very, very tired of self-absorbed bloggers.

I learned to love cooking and the kitchen at my mother's side. I cooked a hot breakfast with my mom every morning before school from kindergarten to 12th grade. Eggs, sometimes bacon, grits (yep, I'm a Southerner), or oatmeal, toast, etc. It started with just helping set the table and scramble the eggs, but by senior year I was doing it all. I never knew other families grabbed pop-tarts on the way out the door. It wasn't complicated stuff, but I learned my way around the kitchen.

I think kids cooking is great. Putting kids on TV/media and making them "tastemakers" is another thing all together. Maybe because kids seem to understand technology better than us, we think they know everything better than adults? I sometimes pretendeed to be on a cooking show as I prepared things growing up. (Um, sometimes still do.) But this sounds like more hipster bo-bo's thinking their kids are literally the best thing since sliced bread (or should I say artisanal?) resulting in kid-centered families, spoiled brats, and all the rest.

There's plenty of time for overexposure in the media when they are adults.

VW
http://margincomments.blogspot.com

I have never heard of this.

Getting rid of television was possibly the best decision of my life.

Children that are not friends and family do not entertain me in the slightest. If the target audience is other children, I don't really have to worry about it and if the target audience is adults, then I think they have failed to identify what the majority of their audience wants to see and read.

kids in restaurants, kids in the kitchen..why the vitriol?

As a blogger who chronicles the adventures of raising a child who eats most everything, I embrace the idea of kids in the kitchen and in restaurants. I'm all about teaching kids to have a healthy attitude towards food, eating locally and organically whenever possible. And hopefully with an understanding of why maple syrup is better than Aunt Jemima:

http://www.izzyeats.com/2009/03/second-grade-syrup-tasting-maple-or.html

I certainly do not advocate "adults taking advice from kids", nor do I imagine that anyone is expected to, when watching shows or reading articles which do feature kids. These shows are obviously presented for their novelty factor. The children are featured as an exaggeration of what can be wrought if you steer your child away from nuggets, towards a healthier way of eating. I would rather see them than toddlers raised on burgers, nuggets and plain pasta. I'd like to hope that they are emblematic of a new, anti-fast food generation.

I write about my experiences feeding my child in hopes of inspiring others to realize that it is possible to have children who do not covet nuggets, fries and the like. If parents take a greater role in shaping their children's palates, perhaps there will be a new generation, more inclined to eat in ways that are better for the environment and their bodies.

Let kids be kids. If they have fun in the kitchen then who cares? Why not allow them to express their creativity and imagination. I played in the kitchen at an early age calling myself (I cringe just thinking about it) "Julia Grownup" making pretend along with genuine simple meals, with the help of my mom and older sisters by my side. I'm sure that is one of the reasons why I still enjoy being in the kitchen today. As the mother of a 1-year old little girl, I only hope she will spend the same memorable time in the kitchen by my side as I did with my mom.

Insofar as her "palate": do I hope she enjoys various foods and doesn't fall into the kid meal trap? Of course. Every parent would rather their child eat what the rest of the family is eating but I'm not naive enough to turn it into a power struggle over what she puts into her mouth. We'll continue to offer her a wide variety of foods with different tastes and textures and she'll see us eat the same, while preparing the majority of those foods at home. If she turns into a budding chef in the process, so be it.

If something is that annoying, then one can always turn the channel.

Yes, kids are better off for being exposed to interesting foods. No, this does not make it appealing to hear them critique it (unless you are his parent and you might give a shit). I encourage parents to expand their child's horizons but do not expect anyone else to care, I won't when I have one.

No more 9-year-olds with dating advice, no more preteen restaurant critics, no more being bossed around by kids whose parents are pushing them to make a buck when they are really being trained to be a-holes.

Does anyone even care what they think? NO, it is just novel and "cute" to have an infant thinking he is as valid as an adult.

I'd never heard of this until today, and I dunno... I guess I tend to ignore things like this. Personally I would like to discourage anything in general that turns kids into miniature adults. Its like dressing a kid up in a suit - it wasn't their choice and you KNOW they don't want to be dressed like that, but it makes the parents and family ooh and ahh because, like doll house furniture, everything looks cute in miniature.

I have never even heard of the kiddie food movement, so I don't have an opinion really of it. I do have an opinion about the concept of "Kids should learn more from adults (eat what we eat, learn what we know about ingredients and the source of our food) rather than adults taking tips from kids."

That sounds a little bit like adults thinking "What could YOU possibly teach me". I don't really understand why that is an ok attitude towards children, when it would be insufferable when applied to adults who might be less sophisticated.

Stop taking life so serious!!!!

I recommend reading the whole article - it's not a condemnation of feeding children adult food. It's about parents who think their kids are the next Ripert or Ferran Adria and want to foist their kids wisdom on us.

It's annoying with child pundits, its annoying with child artists, it's annoying with child chefs. Just because your kid is better than other kids in his/her age group at something does not make him/her equal to an adult. Or cute.

Let the kids be kids, foster their love of food (or art or politics) and let them develop their own path toward their chosen career. Otherwise, they tend to become insufferable know-it-alls, when they don't really have the skills and knowledge to back it up.

Oh my god. I live under a rock and never heard about this. I am so glad I didn't know. And wish I still didn't. Not that this is any worse than sexualizing 5 year olds in beauty pageants.

stop takin life so serious?

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