What are all those bits?

Food is complicated enough without the complex chemical alchemy we call cooking.

Who knows what's lurking in there..?

We've all watched those documentaries where an intrepid explorer is sat with a remote tribe being handed a bowl of some mysterious concoction by an expectant host. How grateful we are that it's them who has to relish it, not us!

That 'turning of the stomach' we feel when imagining ourselves in their shoes is our bodies saying beware! Don't eat it! You don't know what's in it and you don't know if it's safe.

Now let's imagine that instead of just being handed the bowl we'd actually had the chance of working alongside the cooks helping to prepare this local delicacy. We'd know everything that had gone in and how it had been cooked. When it came to trying it we might still feel slightly uneasy and probably our bodies would still be telling us to beware, but it would be much easier to overcome those feelings.

If we had the choice we might still choose not to eat it. If we were a young child we almost certainly would absolutely refuse to eat it.

But in time, if we were involved over and over again and if we saw others enjoying the end result our stomach's would turn less and less until we were prepared, or maybe even keen, to try some.

The route to the bedroom should be through the kitchen.

If, like us, you eat after your children are safely tucked up in bed, but if, like us, you prepare your meal before they go to bed, then make sure the route to the bedroom is through the kitchen.

Even seeing the food you are preparing helps enormously, if you can encourage them to give you a helping hand, so much the better.

They don't need to be there from start to finish, that would be too much to ask.

Just a few minutes here and there, chopping, weighing, mixing, washing, stirring, or just observing is all you need.

Talk to them about the ingredients, the cooking process and how much you're looking forward to eating the end result.

Let them see you try some, whether it's the raw ingredients, or the partially finished dish doesn't matter.

Bit by bit they will build a picture of the different ingredients, how they are typically combined, what happens in the cooking process and most importantly that the result is safe to eat.

Our freezer has dozens of little pots of food.

It's food that our daughter saw being prepared, is likely to have been involved in, knows that we've eaten ourselves many times and that she will be given for her own dinner at some point in the not too distant future.

From chicken and pistachio curry, to Mexican chilli, to a Moroccan tagine and lots more besides.

Over time I've learnt not to give her anything:

that she's never seen being prepared
that contains visible components that she doesn't know well
that contains hidden surprises, flavour or texture bombs as I call them... this means no whole spices, no pieces of ginger etc.

and, of course, that I don't think she'll like.

As always, the rule is she doesn't have to eat anything she doesn't want... no matter how much I happen to think it's delicious!

It's good to talk.

I'm sure I've mentioned elsewhere that the ears are a very unreliable route to a young child's brain.

Well, it's generally true, with one very big exception... the development of language.

Having a word for something helps us to reason about it and even helps us to see it, literally!

So, as you are preparing food together, talk.

Talk about:

which bits you eat, which you discard and why
the differences between things
what something is adding to the final dish
flavour and even more importantly talk about texture

All of this gives children a language that even if they don't use it in their own conversation, speeds up the process of distinguishing what is safe to eat from what isn't and what it's likely to feel like when they eventually put it in their own mouths.

The one thing never to say is 'Would you like to try some?'!!

Children will never want to come near the kitchen if they think your purpose in involving them is to get them to try things they're not yet ready for.

Remember, young children do not refuse to eat things just to wind us up!

Unless we teach them to do so.

Created 21/06/2019

Last Updated 21/06/2019

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