Four reasons why we should encourage kids to cook

Here at Le Cordon Bleu London we know how important it is to kick start a child’s love of food at an early age. But with the pace of life increasing it can sometimes be hard to find the time to show our next generation how to cook. Le Cordon Bleu London developed the one-day children’s cooking short course, Le Petit Cordon Bleu to help parents encourage their children to get passionate about food. In this article we will share the four top reasons why we should all be encouraging more children to get into the kitchen from young.

1. An important life skill:
Learning the art of cooking is an essential life skill that we all need to know, even if this is in the most basic form. Introducing children to cooking from a younger age will make them more confident in the kitchen as they grow older, and provide them with the ability to cater to their own needs, and potentially the needs of their future families.

On our short course, your children will learn essential techniques like basic knife skills and how to safely slice fruit and vegetables, and chop up herbs. And just think, your child’s culinary prowess may just take the pressure off of you! What parent wouldn’t want an extra helping hand in the kitchen every now and then?

2. A good relationship builder:
Cooking is a great relationship builder, as spending quality time together in the kitchen with your child encourages cooperation, and improves communication. Le Petit Cordon Bleu is specifically designed for 8-12 year-olds to share a special culinary experience with their accompanying adult. This is likely to strengthen your bond and bring you closer together.

3. It makes children appreciate good food:
If children are preparing food from scratch from an early age, not only will they be more likely to eat a wider range of foods (because how exciting must it be for them to eat what they have just lovingly prepared!?), but they are also more likely to appreciate fresh, wholesome and nutritious foods, as opposed to highly-processed and less-healthy options. Introducing new foods to young children that they may not have otherwise tried, may help them to lead a healthier lifestyle and be more engaged in meal planning, food shopping and dinner preparation.

4. Encourages creativity:
Children are such imaginative beings, and it is great to encourage this by using cooking as a creative output. From deciding what to make for dinner, to what ingredients to use, through to how to present the dish on the plate, cooking is a great way to encourage creativity.

At Le Cordon Bleu London, our expert Teaching Chefs encourage children to be creative by teaching them fun and delicious recipes such as ham and pineapple pizza, prawn skewers, or salmon papillote, which they must style and present as they see fit. Children are also taught the art of seasoning their dishes, using salt, pepper, and herbs to create the perfect balance of flavours.

If you would like to equip your child with essential cooking techniques, then why don’t you sign up for Le Petit Cordon Bleu, and create a special culinary memory that you can both treasure for a lifetime.