The Missing Ingredient? Teaching Kids to Cook

We talk a lot about getting kids to eat right (especially this week, thanks to Michelle Obama and Jamie Oliver), but there's limited discussion of how to get our kids involved in preparing food.

Yes, some school garden programs get kids in on fixing the lunches after they grow them, but a widespread acknowledgment of the need to train kids in the basic skills of the kitchen has generally been conspicuously missing from our national conversation about childhood nutrition and health.

After all, if they're going to eat well as adults, they're going to have to know how to do more than use a microwave.

In Berkeley, California (of course), there's a move afoot to change that.

The Sprouts Cooking Club, a nonprofit venture started by Karen Rogers, 23, when she was still in college, is "a year-round culinary program that gives youth of all ages the opportunity to learn directly from real chefs and explore cooking in the kitchens of real restaurants."

Participants between the ages of 7 and 13 create ambitious culinary creations like butternut squash ravioli and avocado chocolate cake at some of Berkeley's most high-profile restaurants such as Chez Panisse and Boulevard. The program is funded by Whole Foods, Straus Creamery, and Alter Eco Fair Trade and partners with Kaiser Permanente to offer healthy cooking classes to employees and their families.

While not all kids will get to be trained by Alice Waters or spend their time cooking gourmet food, I think it's still high time that the intentions behind such programs as the Sprouts Cooking Club made their way into the larger culture.

Quick survey: How many of you learned to cook as a child? I didn't, having grown up in an era that celebrated slapdash frozen fixes and just-add-water cake mixes. My mother could have taken me in hand to learn the basics of boiling an egg or making spaghetti, but she, along with many in her generation, didn't feel there was much value in such lessons. As a result, I am still a novice chef who thrills when I create a meal that even remotely resembles the recipe on which it's based.

Should we let the next generation of kids march into adulthood without the foggiest idea how to make anything but reservations? Parents, who are so busy they often don't cook themselves, might not teach their kids to cook. The Sprouts Cooking Club will. Now where are the others?

Photo: woodleywonderworks on Flickr