Try This: Kids Cooking with Kids… Online!
Do you know a kid who loves to cook? Better still, do you cook with your own kids?
Liliana
There are a lot of websites (run by, among others, the Food Network and the Disney Channel) that offer tips, recipes and guidance for parents of kids who like to cook. Those sites are informative, but not really places kids are likely to visit on their own.
But two new cooking websites are hoping to change that. And if my niece, Liliana, is any measure… it looks like they may be on to something.
“KickinKitchen.TV” is a fast-paced skit-cooking show where the teenage chefs sing and dance while demonstrating easy-to-achieve recipes. Liliana, who is a huge fan of Disney’s “Shake It Up,” says she liked it because it was less like a cooking program and more like “a fun show” that she would watch (even if it didn’t have the cooking aspect).
“Kids Who Love To Cook” is another online program where kids explore all aspects of cooking. The kids break down what they’re cooking that day in an easy-to-follow show-and-tell format. Liliana was hooked by the home-page images used to illustrate the various recipes (she wants to make the Chocolate Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting).
Both sites promote healthy eating and exercise, and both ask viewers to send in their recipes (which are posted). And, like any good food-related website, there are contests and promotions (although I find KickinKitchen’s contest to find the nation’s WORST school cafeteria food a bit over the top).
Celebrity chefs have taken food as entertainment to a whole new level and it was just a matter of time before kids got looped into the frenzy. That only stands to reason: Today’s little kids are tomorrow’s big-time food consumers. Hook the kid early and you’ve hooked a consumer for life—and that means more M-O-N-E-Y for chefs, food companies and food and cooking channels on TV.
But, hey, if watching a music video will help a kid learn the importance of portion control, Mama’s all for it!
Sounds like a great idea for cooking with kids! Thanks for sharing! I’d like to invite you to our party, Fantastic Thursday. http://www.fivelittlechefs.com Hope to see you there!