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Food writer Regina Schrambling says she's finally found a phenomenon even more annoying than Rachel "Yummo" Ray: Precocious kiddie foodies. Writing in Slate, Schrambling points to some of her main offenders: New York Times' fawning coverage of 12-year-old "restaurant critic" David Fishman, the Times' new "Cooking With Dexter" feature written by food editor Pete Wells about his kitchen exploits with his 4-year-old son, and NPR's 5-year-old Chef Julian, the world's "youngest celebrity chef." These kids are not just being cooed at for their cuteness, she says, they're actually being held up as inspiration for adult chefs.
Schrambling claims that A) Kitchens are not nurseries - they're dangerous places filled with knives and boiling oil - so we encourage kids to cook only at the peril of their forearms and fingertips, B) Kids have less-developed taste buds, naturally craving high levels of salty and sweet, and therefore are less likely to come up with anything truly remarkable to adult palates, and C) The younger you are, the smaller your food memory bank, so a 5-year-old is probably not going to know a "good" burger from a "bad" burger.
"On a larger scale, the trend emphasizes the worst of the food frenzy today: the celebration of celebrity and novelty over authenticity and seriousness," Schrambling writes. "...Today chefs barely out of high school are competing on reality cooking shows, and the bar keeps being lowered, with Internet exposure for every little Thomas Keller."
I find over-precocious kids annoying in general, and I think that any parent who holds up little Ava or Aidan as a paragon of culinary sophistication is totally silly. At the same time, I think it's great for kids to get in the kitchen and learn a thing or two about food. Better than sitting in front of the X-Box eating Cakesters (I'm sure Schrambling would agree). And if having a few kiddie chefs on TV helps encourage a greater respect for food, that's great. Though I'm unlikely to be trying out any of their recipes any time soon.
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3-04-2009 @2:53PM Monika said... What bothers me is how much the kids are prompted by their parents. There's a difference between a kid becoming popular from documenting their own food forays and being guided by mom and dad.
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3-05-2009 @8:35AM Jessica said... I couldn't agree more. The only things kids should be doing in the kitchen is the dishes.
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3-05-2009 @12:27PM Sarah W. said... I am a primary school teacher and I couldn't disagree with you all more. Children should be encouraged to help in the kitchen- learning to prepare food, mixing, stirring, and yes, even cutting is great for children's small and gross motor skills. As long as they are supervised, children as young as three can help in the kitchen. It also boosts their confidence and makes them feel proud of what they have done. The earlier you teach children to cook and eat healthy foods, the better the chance they will become healthy adults. As for the TV chefs: I could care less.
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3-05-2009 @2:16PM matt said... I think it's a misconception that kids don't yet have mature taste buds; I'm pretty sure it's exactly the opposite. As kids we have a more complete sense of taste than we do as adults because taste buds die off as we age. In other words, they can taste things that we can't just like they can hear things that we can't.
What seems to happen is that kids appear to have less sophisticated palates because they find objectionable tastes in foods that adults actually miss. But I could be wrong.
Regardless, I'm still never going to have any interest in kid chefs. They still have completely different tastes. I've never liked kid prodigies being marketed to adults in any area, but I've just assumed that's because I don't have kids myself.
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3-05-2009 @3:06PM Sarah said... My son's job in my business is to be a taste tester/garbage disposal.
Works well. The boy loves to eat and will try anything once.
If he won't touch the food, I know the idea/concept/recipe was a stinker. I use him to try out commercial made "hiker" food as well (most of it makes me want to run away). Whenever he says "NOOOO!" I then flunk the item. If he won't eat, I know it is nasty.
But do I trust him to cut food with knives? No way. He is an 11 year old boy who so would cut himself! I especially don't trust him with the stove. What boy doesn't love fire? ;-)
There is something pretty pretentious about kids who act like little adults. Let your kids be kids and have fun making messes. Don't try to make a living off them....it is about as awful as parents grooming a kid for movies! It is almost always in this type of situation where the adult sees potential and markets the kid - where it is the parent who has the actual talent but is not marketable.
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3-27-2009 @8:50PM Sparkina said... I would encourage children and teens to HELP their parents in the kitchen so they'll feel like helpful members of the family and learn to eat something other than packaged snacks. They even have special culinary schools for kids and teens (Young Chefs'Academy, Batter Up!) so little Brenna or Bowen can develop a flair for food.
So, yes, I think youngsters should HELP the grownups in the kitchen. I said HELP -- tear salad greens, break eggs, stir mixtures, taste mixtures. Anything with heat, fire, or knives is the adult's department. End of it.
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