5 Fun Ways to Get Kids Excited About Cooking

Anyone can be a master of the kitchen.

It has nothing to do with age or experience (take it from me). All you need is the desire to always be trying something new!

I recently had the chance to travel to Canada where I learned that only 12 per cent of Canadian kids help their parents prepare dinner. This is why I’ve decided to help get kids cooking.

There are safe and fun ways to introduce different types of dishes and cooking tasks to kids at the right age (there’s no way mom would let me touch the knives until I was good and ready).

So … if you’re looking for some guidance on how to get started, here are my five tips:

1. Start out simple

Start by giving your kid an easy cooking task to build their confidence and let them know that joining you in the kitchen is not only helpful, but also greatly appreciated. Making tacos? Get your kid to stir up the guacamole. Need a quick side? Get your kid to dress and toss the salad. As they get more comfortable in the kitchen, you can start to give them more responsibility.

2. Make their favorite meal

It should be easy to get kids interested in learning how to cook their favorite meal. Start by writing out all the ingredients and steps to complete the dish. Then have them collect all the items in the kitchen, and read out each step of how to make the dish. They’ll love getting the chance to read instructions out to you. This gets them more familiar and comfortable with each step.

3. Try something new together

Sometimes the way to have the most fun in the kitchen is to try something completely new. Cooking a new dish together is a great bonding experience and it will have you both excited to taste the final product. Pick the recipe together, buy the ingredients together, cook the meal together and then eat together. There are great suggestions at GetKidsCooking.ca. 

4. Get creative

We tend to get comfortable in the kitchen and make the same meals over and over again. Let your kid help you mix things up by adding a new topping or seasoning. Try visiting an aisle in the grocery store you usually don’t. Instead of having the normal broccoli side dish you might just end up with a rapini or swiss chard! Make a list of alternative side or seasoning options and leave it up to your ‘sous chef’ to make the pick.

5. Invite friends over

The more the merrier. Right!? Invite your kid’s friends over and have them try cooking or baking something together. There might be more of a mess but there will be more hands to help clean up.

6.Check out GetKidsCooking.ca

I want to help get kids cooking so I’m sharing my cooking tips and recipe challenges with kids and parents at GetKidsCooking.ca. You can get the Chicken Fried Rice with a Pineapple Punch recipe there, and all my other weekly tips!. Be sure try out the recipe challenges and submit a picture of the dish you make a for a chance to win one of three $10,000 RESPs. Need a little inspiration? Click here to see what other kids are cooking up!

I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Love the Cabbage,

Logan