Dear reader,
When my mom baked cakes when I was little, I was always next to her, waiting for my only job: to lick the batter off the spoon. In my head, I was helping her, giving her the ingredients, and contributing. That’s what’s great about cooking with kids, until it gets messy. They think it’s a game, you get a butler in the form of a tiny human, and we can all pretend it isn’t free labor.
However, the trick is to teach them young. Put a child under 10 in the kitchen, and they’ll mix, roll, taste, spill flour everywhere, still feel good about themselves, and pretend like they made the whole thing. Wait until they’re teenagers and their only kitchen skill is opening the fridge, staring at it for 5 minutes, and asking why there’s nothing to eat.
Our new “Cooking with Kids” recipes, in partnership with Candia, made me think I should start planning for my future. I don’t have kids yet, but my imaginary twins are already booked to help me with breakfast.
There were cream puffs made across three generations, with Hoda, Mariam and 6-year-old George keeping an eye on the lemon-zested pastry cream. Patricia Bakalian and her 7-year-old son Noah went for Japanese milk bread, which they turned into a proper Sunday sandwich with labneh, cucumbers and olives. Chef Jad Choucair made a spring salad with 5-year-old Lazare, whose main interest seemed to be dipping tomatoes into cashews. Hana Zoghby and her 4-year-old daughter Alaia made the ideal weekend breakfast: pancakes.
Put the tiny humans to work while they still think it's fun. Let them stir, taste, spill, steal bites, and believe with their whole chest that they made the thing.
One day they'll make it again, for their own kid, standing at the counter with the spoon.
Melissa Manouchakian
Distribution editor
Hoda, Mariam and 6-year-old George's cream puffs
Patricia Bakalian and her son Noah, 7, make Japanese milk bread
Jad Choucair's spring salad with his 5-year-old son, Lazare
Hana Zoghby and her 4-year-old daughter Alaia's pancakes
