MasterChef Junior
One of my favorite stories about my nephew starts with a snow day. He got up early and cooked a breakfast of sausage and eggs while the adults slept in. If memory serves, he was 7 at the time. Luckily, my nephew and the kitchen were still standing, although the sink and stove were a mess.
My chagrined sister let her junior chef know not to cook with fire when the adults were asleep, but there’s nothing wrong with kids getting comfortable in the kitchen as long as they are properly trained and supervised advises Faronda Davis. Her daughter, Ayla, has been using a stove since she was 6 and was a contestant on Fox’s MasterChef Junior until being eliminated this week.
“A lot of adults, they underestimate the little people,” says Davis, founder of Honey Kids Kitchen and ABC Chefs Academy in Chesterfield. “You’d be amazed at what a 5-year-old can do with a paring knife or chopping knife.”
Davis’s school offers Mommy and Me classes for kids as young as a year and a half and holds a summer camp where students ages 5 to 17 make three-course meals of soufflés, ratatouille, and sushi from scratch. Even the pickiest of parents feel compelled to try their kids’ creations. “It’s hard for them to believe this little person prepared this three-course meal themselves,” says Davis, who’s looking to open another school in the Los Angeles area.
But kids don’t have to attend cooking classes to reap the benefits of time in the kitchen. Cooking helps children learn to read and follow directions, practice basic math skills, improve cultural awareness, and employ their sense of creativity, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research.
Fostering a sense of ownership in the kitchen encourages kids to try new foods, too, especially when they are young enough not to have any preconceived notions about what is going to taste good. For example, Ayla Davis’s signature dish is pumpkin corn soup, a recipe her mom initially introduced to a cooking class of skeptical first-graders.
“These kids loved this soup. You know, when they get to a certain age, everything is no,” says Davis, who is working with Ayla, now 12, on a monthly subscription box with recipe cards and other tools to help get kids cooking. “But [cooking] just opens up the door for healthy eating when they are older and, actually, for life.”
Davis recommends having kids join you in the kitchen, but don’t be disappointed if dinner isn’t perfect and the sink is in shambles. Because you aren’t just making a meal, you’re making memories—and a mess.
Charlene Oldham is a freelance writer and teacher who lives in Crestwood.
