How to Cook Everything Kids
By MARK KENNEDY
NEW YORK (AP) — Mark Bittman has taught us how to cook everything — how to bake and grill, prepare fish and vegetarian meals and do it fast. This fall, he’s targeting a different kind of home chef — the little ones.
A Book for Kids
"How to Cook Everything Kids" is written for children aged 8-12 and is bursting with photos, graphics, advice, and techniques to empower any mini-Julia Childs in your home. Bittman says, "It required a different kind of thinking. This is a book that is built to please kids — and we’re not kids. So we had to consult with kids. We had to try to think like kids and about kids."
Kid-Friendly Recipes
The book features kid-friendly dishes like baked ziti, chicken nuggets, and chicken with orange sauce, giving easy directions and variations, like pork chops with apples for the latter dish. The tone is less pedantic and more encouraging, allowing room for younger chefs to experiment and customize dishes. There are lists, such as "9 Ways to Flavor Scrambled Eggs," and recipes for substituting soy sauce glaze with sweet-and-sour, peanut, and hot variations. "You do you," Bittman writes at one point.
Visual Appeal
The book is designed to be "fun visually" for kids, with pictures throughout. "We wanted it to feel inviting and fun visually for the kids. I think keeping their interest and holding their attention was something that we really wanted to do," says Jacqueline Quirk, an associate editor at Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Empowering Young Chefs
Bittman hopes that "How to Cook Everything Kids" will teach children that cooking isn’t hard and they can produce things that taste good — lifelong paths toward better health and breaking the addiction to eating out. "If you empower them to make it themselves, they’ll be more likely to enjoy it, even if it’s a strange vegetable or something like that," says Quirk. "We wanted to inspire an adventurousness in kids."
A New Generation of Chefs
Bittman is confident that the book will inspire a new generation of chefs. "There’s a lot of stuff in here that 4- and 5-year-olds might get a kick out of if they’re so inclined," he says. "The important thing is that parents set the example and that’s a more important thing than having kids do hands-on cooking."
Color and Sweetness, No Mandolins
The book reaches a crescendo with a beef and vegetable stir-fry, a dish Bittman considers part of a holy trinity. "I think there’s three critical recipes in this world. And they are: stir-fry, rice and beans, and chopped salad. Imagine mastering those, or having a sense of those, when you were 12 — you’re sort of set for life at that point," Bittman says.
Conclusion
"How to Cook Everything Kids" is a useful resource for first-time cooks, explaining things like garbanzo beans are the same as chickpeas and offering helpful sections on spices and herbs, kitchen equipment, and how to prep everything from butternut squash to corn.
FAQs
Q: Who is the target audience for this book?
A: Children aged 8-12.
Q: What kind of recipes are included in the book?
A: Kid-friendly dishes like baked ziti, chicken nuggets, and chicken with orange sauce.
Q: What is the tone of the book?
A: Less pedantic and more encouraging, allowing room for younger chefs to experiment and customize dishes.
Q: What is the goal of the book?
A: To empower children to cook and produce things that taste good, leading to better health and breaking the addiction to eating out.
