These Kids ARE Cooking
May 11, 2009
Recently I had the pleasure of judging the Jif? Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest?. The kids were so adorable! One little girl, from Mississippi, was asked if she was enjoying her stay in New York. She floored us when she answered, “I surely am, ma’am.”
One by one, each child came up to the exhibition kitchen with her mother (this year’s finalists were all girls; other groups have been mixed.) With the parent acting as sous-chef, the child demonstrated how to make her creation.
When the judges asked the kids questions, it was great to see how comfortable they were in the kitchen. Questions like, where did you get the idea of adding…. would be answered by something like, well, I use that combination in another dish that I make.
Several of the mothers talked about encouraging their kids to be creative in the kitchen. But from what I could see, the kids were also encouraged to be careful and thoughtful. They could discuss why one ingredient might be better than another; they could figure out how to present a dish well.
In these families, it looked like the kitchen was a place to try things out, to make yummy dishes, and to have fun.
Mealtimes Matter Video
from Miriam Weinstein
About Miriam
Miriam Weinstein is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. As a journalist, she has won several awards from the New England Press Association. Her work has appeared in Boston Magazine, the Boston Globe magazine, Hope, and ParentSource. A former staff member for North Shore Weeklies and freelancer for Essex County Newspapers, she writes restaurant reviews and food columns as well as features on a wide variety of subjects. She lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts, with her husband and has two grown children.
The Surprising Power of Family Meals
In her book, The Surprising Power of Family Meals, Miriam Weinstein shows how this basic human institution helps nourish and strengthen our families today.