On Cooking with Kids (With a Few Recommended Books)

I recently got into a conversation about the notion that "cooking with kids" is hokey and doesn't belong in a tasteful food publication. I hear the point, but I think it's because so much of what's presented as children's cooking is exactly that: Hokey.

We live in a time like no other, when the odds of growing into a healthy adult with healthy attitudes about food and an ability to cook well are stacked against most kids. I think it's wonderful that there is so much more attention being given to this topic than ever before — books, blogs, cooking classes for kids, little white toques and aprons ("cooking robes" as my daughter would say) — but what all of these things are replacing is the good old fashioned practice of cooking together as a family. Having a grandma in the house and passing down recipes through the generations feels like an increasingly rare concept. Having the whole family around the table for dinner every night is very rare.

These days life is more complicated. Many of us live thousands of miles from our elders, we work — some have the kids in daycare, not standing around rolling gnocchi all day. You can reclaim that time though, even if just in little bits.

I'm not a fan of disguising healthy things, or tricking kids into eating things. I'm also not big on making sugar the centerpiece of a child's cooking experience. Below are some books that should inspire just about anyone — parent, aunt, neighbor, babysitter, friend — to kick back with a child, and get their hands into the food. It's the best step in the direction of making sure the children of today take care of their bodies, their earth, and their happiness by cooking and eating well. Remember, the most helpful tool for connecting kids and cooking in a meaningful way is taking time and exploring ingredients, whether or not you have a book to guide you.

The Silver Spoon for Children: Favorite Italian Recipes by Editors of Phaidon Press (Phaidon Press) - If you haven't checked out the Silver Spoon series yet, start here with this Nonna-in-a-book. It contains all the big hits of the Italian culinary tradition (Pizza Margherita, Polenta Gnocchi, Tuscan Minestrone Soup) presented in both illustrated and photographic form with easy-to-follow instructions. It doesn't avoid ingredients like prosciutto, but it doesn't come off a even a bit snooty. Check out a recent review from Carrie at our kids' site, Ohdeedoh.com. (Amazon.com & Powells.com)

Get Cooking: 150 Simple Recipes to Get You Started in the Kitchen by Mollie Katzen (Harper Studio) - The celebrated Moosewood Cookbook author's latest work isn't necessarily aimed at children the way her Salad People, Honest Pretzels and Pretend Soup are. Instead, it's the every-recipe-you-always-wanted-to-know-but-were-afraid-to-ask-how-to-make book. The recipes in Get Cooking are simple and inexpensive to prepare. We're starting to see a lot of recession-friendly cookbooks, but this one is a stand-out for the Mollie-factor. It's family friendly, with a good crunchy warm vibe. (Amazon.com & Powells.com)

Baking Kids Love by Cindy Mushet (Andrews McMeel Publishing) - If you have to go the sugar-coated-cupcake route to get your kids to cook, I'd start with this title, part of the Sur La Table series. It has the basics like chocolate chip cookies, but also some more "mature" recipes like Rustic Apple Pie, Pumpkin Gingerbread and Focaccia. (Amazon.com & Powells.com)

The Gastrokid Cookbook: Feeding a Foodie Family in a Fast-Food World by Hugh Garvey (Wiley) - The authors start out with their 10 Gastrokid Rules, including: "Never Call a Kid a Picky Eater," (It just gives him an excuse to refuse stuff.), "Don't Take It Personally That Your Kids Despise Your Cooking," and "When In Doubt, Add Salt, Fat, and Acid." The authors take a very freehand approach to cooking (measuring spoons are just an extra thing to wash). So their recipes are very, very short and simple sketches of quick dishes to make on short notice, like quick pasta dishes, crispy cod, grilled Japanese eggplant, and Tuscan steak for toddlers. Read our full review here. (Amazon.com & Powells.com)

Fanny at Chez Panisse: A Child's Restaurant Adventures with 46 Recipes by Alice Waters (William Morrow Cookbooks) - Told from the perspective of Waters's daughter, Fanny, this is a cookbook for families who are okay with Crouton and Gremolata and Mirepoix being part of their kids' vocabularies. (Hint: if they're cooking with these items, you will win. Why wouldn't you encourage your own mini Chez Panisse chef?!) I also think her Edible Schoolyard is a wonderful source of inspiration for children to see how food is grown, and how kids themselves can grow, harvest and eat it. (Amazon.com & Powells.com)

Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys by Lucinda Scala Quinn (Artisan) - This is a knock-out book from the woman whose hand is in much of the culinary programming at Martha Stewart. She's the mother of three boys, and the sister of three brothers. Don't expect the "boy" slant to translate to corndogs and chili. This is a beautifully thoughtful book on satisfying hungry bellies and keeping anyone with the xy chromosomes interested enough in eating that they actually want to cook as well. And it's not just for boys: my daughter would devour anything in here. (Amazon.com & Powells.com)

Knead It, Punch It, Bake It!: The Ultimate Breadmaking Book for Parents and Kids by Judith Jones (Houghton Mifflin Company) - This is a classic book for children, written by the deeply knowledgeable and charming Judith Jones who was Julia Child's editor. She understands what children need to stay interested in cooking and these recipes will captivate. If you see a copy, snap it up. (Amazon.com & Powells.com)

More-With-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre (Herald Press) - Originally published in 1976, this is a title that made a big impact on Faith. She wrote a piece about it that is worth a read. It is not aimed specifically at kids, but if Faith is any evidence, it could make a deep impression on a young person with its focus on healthy, conscientious cooking. (Amazon.com & Powells.com)

The Family Kitchen Garden: How to Plant, Grow, and Cook Together by Karen Liebreich (Timber Press) - This is a very informative book that covers eating from backyard to table, including all ages at every step of the way. With just a few recipes, this is more of a gardening textbook than cookbook, but I don't see how anyone could use this book and not come out with scads of cooking ideas. Being able to interact with food at every step of its life-cycle is an experience every child should have, even if it's just in a little window-sill box. (Amazon.com & Powells.com)

For more cookbook action, check out our archive of reviews.

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Comments (23)

These are great suggestions-thank you. My daughter is now old enough to stand on a step stool at the counter while I am prepping our meals. Last night she "helped" me make a salad and last week was the roasted cauliflower. I hand her items after I've cut them to place in a bowl and she is given a spice shaker to season the foods. She tends to use spices more liberally than I would but the extra garlic powder on the roasted cauliflower still tasted wonderful.

I am looking forward to more of these types of activities as she gets older.

What I find hokey is the precious foo-foo make-everything-look-like-a-bunny school of kiddie food, usually assembled using processed foods. I grew up cooking alongside my mom and grandmothers and aunts (the men were tasters, lifters of heavy things, and putter-outers-of-fires, but my mom taught my brothers to cook too and they both grew up to be excellent cooks).

Now that I cook with my daughter I appreciate the tremendous patience of my elders! Yeah, extra spices, SO much stirring, and quite a mess. But very worth it on a lot of fronts. It's a major gift I can pass on.

Cookies for Kids was my favorite cookbook as a child, and my mom would almost always let me bake whatever I wanted out of it. Even though it's very outdated now, and technically full of sugar- it really lit the way for me to fall in love with the kitchen.

Cooking develops motor skills, math, reading.... I remember cooking in elementary school as a part of several lessons. Kids are excited by cooking for all the reasons we're all in love with it too.

Sara Kate - What a great post....I couldn't agree with you more on the importance of getting your kids into the kitchen with you. Of all the things we do for our kids, to me, none is more important than educating them not only about what to eat, for their own health as well as that of our planet, but also how to prepare their food themselves. My kids are a bit older than yours (10, 12, 13, 15, 17), so the days of fighting to get them to eat "new" things are largely behind me. These days our time together in the kitchen is spent teaching techniques and helping them to build their confidence as fledgling cooks by cooking "real" food. We have a lot of fun together. You can check us out at www.ouichefnetwork.com.

Love your site, keep the great posts coming. Cheers - Steve

I love cooking with my toddler. It's just some we DO together - true quality time. And I don't think it's hokey in the least.

Plus, if we don't make efforts to cook with our kids then the art of homecooked meals just might disappear. Cooking is rarely taught at school, so where else will kids learn those basic skills?

I don't have kids yet, but I have great memories of watching and stirring and chopping even at a very young age in the kitchen with my mom, grandmother, and nanny. It's the best present I ever received--learning how to cook (and all sorts of cooking as my mom made African, Chinese, Caribbean, Italian, etc. all the time).

Also, my parents' friend gave me this book when I was little--maybe 5 or 6 and I learned how to cook by myself from it and loved it: http://www.amazon.com/Kids-Cooking-Slightly-Messy-Manual/dp/0932592147/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264794792&sr=1-1

Some of the recipes are gross sounding now, but a lot of them have stood the test of time and the pictures (and my own color-coded measuring spoons, which came with the book!) made learning so much fun.

Cool. Left out was River Family Cottage cookbook. It is truly a book for everyone and, alongside Art of Simple Food, it's our go-to!

My mom had a well-worn copy of "Feed Me I'm Yours" that always delighted us when we were little.

http://www.amazon.com/Feed-Me-Im-Yours-Expanded/dp/0671884433

(I highly suggest the recipe for peanut butter play dough!)

One of my best memories is of making pasta with my dad and drying the noodles all over his cramped kitchen.

Best post ever!

Funny, we've received a few "kid" cookbooks over the years (the ones, like mentioned earlier - that use a lot of processed ingredients) and it always seems to end up that my kids usually end up picking a cookie recipe from our classic old red & white checkered cookbook that has the pages falling out of it.

The suggestions above are great and will definitely make my gift-giving list. Thanks again!

These are great suggestions! I love the Silver Spoon cookbook and own the Sur la Table baking book - both are very well done!

When I was a youngster, we had the Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls in the house, and we were totally encouraged to cook for ourselves. Alas, when my mom figured out that I was a better cook that she, I got to do more that my fair share!

A year or two ago she gave me a copy of the reissued version for old time's sake -- it was fun to see this book, faithfully reproduced, after so many years. It's not fancy, but it's a good primer for kids:

http://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crockers-Cookbook-Boys-Girls/dp/0764526340

What a treasure this list is. Thanks so much Sara. I think I'll put all of them on my kids' Amazon wish lists!

I just want to second ricestein's recommendations. The Art of Simple Food and The River Cottage Family Cookbook are both fantastic!

I've just started teaching cooking in my daughter's kindergarten class. We only have 30 minutes and limited equipment, which is a little bit of a challenge. The kids seem to really love it though. They are so pleased to eat something they made all by themselves!

Thanks for the great book recommendations, I am going to order a couple of them!

Fantastic post Sara Kate.

Hurray! This is an excellent article. I have based my entire business on teaching children to cook (and their families to cook with their children!). It is so wonderful when others, like you, can promote it so well. Thank you!

I recently started a new series on my blog called What's Cooking with YOUR Kids, where people send in their stories and photos about their experiences cooking with their kids. It's my hope that if people see other families cooking with their kids that they will give it a try, too. I hope that some of your readers will consider sharing their stories to inspire others: http://whatscookingblog.com/2010/01/13/whats-cooking-with-your-kids-send-in-your-stories/

Awesome list. While I grew up cooking with my mom, dad, grandmothers, and great-grandmother, I still remember how excited I was about a kids cookbook that was all mine. I would sit and flip through the recipes over and over again (they were definitely nothing earth-shattering, cranberry punch at Thanksgiving was one of my favorite recipes in there, since it was for a special holiday).
One of the things that had me cooking at an early age was my mom's Easy Bake Oven. It was the old, blue one. Sure, I made the usual culprits like cake, but I also remember making mini pizzas in there while Mom and Dad made their own bigger versions. I can picture them at the butcher block and me at the kitchen table like it was yesterday.

This list and post is great. I'm going to have to ration these books for myself. I'm so glad that others feel that kids go beyond tortillas wrapped up with cheese when it comes to cookbooks. My kids are my biggest critics and have such great imaginations when it comes to food. We have a lot to learn from them.

My 7 year old nephew loves to cook, he is a big fan of the Food Network, he really likes Paula Dean and Rachel Ray. For Christmas I gave him the Silver Spoon Cookbook, it was a big hit. Everyday of his Christmas holiday he would open his book pick something out and make it with my sister, he is still using it.

Over the years I have cooked with a number of my nieces and nephews (I have 13), it is a fun way to spend time with them, and it gives me the opportunity to pass along family recipes and to share family stories and to also find out what is happening in their lives...

It's funny, when I was a kid we had a few of these "Cooking With Kids" cookbooks around the house, but they never really got used.

Instead, the adults in my life just let me help out in the kitchen. I mixed doughs and batters, squeezed lemons, shelled nuts, shaped patties, cut biscuits with an over-turned juice glass, and snapped beans. It didn't exactly teach me to cook, per se, but helped me feel involved and comfortable around the kitchen.

I'm not sure, by the way, that this sort of thing directly translates to healthy eating habits or being less picky or any of that. For me those instincts came from a whole separate place.

I've browsed through the "Mad Hungry" book before, and it really is brilliant. It's food that you would want to make for yourself, presented in a way that's more appealing to the... male pallet.

Great article. I just reviewed a brand new cookbook for kids that's fantastic -- http://www.artsbeatla.com/2011/03/kids-in-the-kitchen-the-supernatural-kids-cookbook/