These scrumptious cookbooks can be used to inspire classroom culinary projects, offer options and instruction for afterschool cooking clubs, or encourage food preparation at home. Cookbooks can offer fodder for discussion about foods from different cultures and countries, family traditions and food heritage, and favorite dishes. Parents and educators can use recipes, which must be carefully decoded and require repeated readings, to provide a unique instructional opportunity for children mastering reading skills, and to reinforce math basics.
Easy as Pie
Deanna F. Cook’s engaging Cooking Class (Storey, 2015; Gr 3-8) pairs food preparation basics with 57 easy-to-follow recipes, all taste—and fun—tested by kids. Winsome photos of young chefs at work accompany the step-by-step text, illustrating each procedure and conveying enthusiasm. The first section covers kitchen safety, vocabulary, tools, measuring, and more (even table setting and napkin folding). Ranging in difficulty from one to three spoons, delectable dishes are arranged according to theme: breakfast, lunch, made-from-scratch snacks, veggie dishes, dinner, and dessert. More difficult tasks (hard-boiling eggs or cutting an avocado) are explained in full-page “How to…” sections, and several recipes encourage youngsters to get inventive by switching out and personalizing specific ingredients. Emphasis is placed on fresh foods (veggies from a farmers market, for instance), and the dishes strike a savory blend of kid appealing and health conscious (a “Mix-and-Match Salad Bar,” lettuce roll-ups, no-cook veggie-packed spring rolls, and “Minty Melon Bubbles”). Entrées include restaurant favorites and healthy versions of fast food (fish tacos, popcorn chicken, sliders, etc.). Examples of edible art—such as a flower garden fashioned from cut-up fruits, a fresh-veggie landscape scene, a butterfly quesadilla, or self-portrait pizzas—add another layer of visual interest and ideas for creativity. This book’s kid-palate-appealing menu, hands-on (and often dirty) photos, and you-can-do-it tone will inspire young cooks to dig right in.
Food: It’s an Adventure
In National Geographic Kids Cookbook (National Geographic, 2014; Gr 3-8), self-proclaimed “food explorer” and chef Barton Seaver serves up mouthwatering recipes with plenty of food for thought. Organized by month, chapters present instructions for several seasonally themed dishes, an inviting craft or project, and an entertaining and elucidating challenge activity. For example, the March section, “a time of new beginnings in cultures all over the world,” features flavorfull recipes for an international feast (Mediterranean hummus, West African mafe, Italian asparagus salad, and French puff pastry Napoleon), directions for creating an indoor herb garden (utilizing recyclable cans and eliminating pollution caused when trucks transport produce), and a month-long challenge to try as many green vegetables as possible (kids keep score, tally up, and rate themselves on the “Veg-O-Meter”). Other activities include compiling a family recipe book (and recording important memories), visiting a local farmers market for a taste-testing A to Z, and repurposing old jeans into reusable lunch bags. In addition to charming photographs of young chefs at work and delish finished products, the text is seasoned with sidebars that impart interesting food facts, kitchen skill basics, tips for healthy eating, and profiles of influential food thinkers (e.g., agricultural pioneer George Washington Carver and chef Alice Waters). Seaver encourages youngsters to not only get cooking, but to also use mealtime as a launching pad for trying new things, investigating family food traditions and initiating new ones, delving into global cultures and tastes, and thinking about the big picture of food sourcing’s ecological impact and sustainability.
For Confident Cooks
Experienced young chefs who need less of the basics and more taste-bud-tempting variety, or those who love to cook with a cherished grownup, will relish in the more than 150 recipes featured in DK’s Complete Children’s Cookbook (DK, 2015; Gr 4 Up). A brief introduction treats healthy eating (and food groups), kitchen hygiene and safety, equipment, and cooking methods. Presented in two-page entries, dishes are organized into themed sections: breakfast, soups and salads, light bites, main meals, desserts, cakes and muffins, cookies and bars, bread, and party snacks. Text and photos provide clear step-by-step directions, but many of the procedures, such as rolling out pie crust for quiche Lorraine or whipping the topping for lemon meringue pie, will require a bit more basic know-how and/or assistance from adult helpers. “Four ways with…” sections show variations for cooking similar dishes (eggs, bruschetta, roast vegetables, etc.). From zucchini frittata to chili con carne, vegetable lasagna to jambalaya, carrot cupcakes to lemonade ice pops, all showcased with a luscious-looking photo, there is much here to whet appetites, introduce more advanced cooking techniques, and encourage youngsters to expand their palates.