Eating

Kids in the kitchen

3/04/2011 Office of Road Safety

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Masterchef and other reality shows have made great inroads in re-popularising cooking at home, but how do you get your kids to have a better appreciation for food?

A cooking class is a great way to get the kids away from 'fast' food and learn about food appreciation – and the social importance of food.

Lisa Bowden and Corinne Lethlean, school teachers and owners of Mini Mixers cooking classes for kids, started running cooking classes two years ago.

Lisa says cooking classes expose children to healthy, good food in a fun environment, and gives them an opportunity to eat something different. She says it also teaches children to slow down and appreciate good food.

“Our objective is to have a class that is fun and that food becomes an enjoyable part of the child's life and for the parents,” Lisa says. “We send the recipe home, so what we cook in class becomes part of their weekly meal...the idea is to give ideas of simple, healthy foods that parents can cook with their kids.

“People are busy and cooking is not always a priority, so it's about the parents as well because they are the ones putting food on the table.”

To involve your children in cooking at home, Lisa says it doesn't matter what you cook as long as you have all the ingredients and the cooking process it not too time consuming.

“Kids can be involved in the evening meal,” Lisa says. “If you're doing a stir-fry, get children to cut up the mushrooms with a Kiddie Food Kutter and encourage them to be in the process of the preparation.”

Lisa says another way to teach children about the rewards of eating fresh food is with their own vegetable patch. She says a vegetable patch enables children to see where their food comes from.

“The kids love planting and the whole process of planting the seed and when they get that first bean... and it's so easy to do at home,” she says. “They love cherry tomatoes and strawberries and the kids love chard, which is like a spinach, but the stalks are in pinks or yellows – they love the colours.”