There's never been a better time to get children involved with cooking. Children of all ages can take on different tasks in the kitchen, with varying levels of supervision. With a little thought and imagination, you should be able to get children excited about making great food.
Top tips for cooking with children at home:
- Allow plenty of time. Cooking with children can take up to twice as long as normal
- Get organised. Make sure you have everything you need before you start. Check the recipe carefully and make a list of everything you need, including equipment
- Repeat after us: a bit of mess is ok. Don’t get stressed about it – it’s all part of the process. Clean up as you go and get kids to help with this too
- Who’s doing what? Put some thought into which cooking tasks your child will be able to do. To begin with, you may need to work this out by trial and error. If you’re cooking with more than one child, think about whether they’re going to take turns or have different jobs. A little bit of planning can save a lot of arguing!
- Keep things simple to start with while you get a feel for what they can do.
- Don’t panic if things go wrong. Even if your recipes don’t turn out like the pictures, you will have had fun and learned some lessons for the next time you try.
Read our top tips for cooking with children of different ages