QUESTION: What are some suggestions for kids who like to cook?

  My son 11 soon to be 12 is an excellent cook! Very adventurous you might say. Fearless about eating or cooking new things.  He is frustrated with the lack of healthy cooking sites geared towards kids like him.  Any suggestions for websites, books, or YouTube type “channels”?

  Things he’s made, on his own: crockpot sweet & sour chicken, Chinese dinner (bok choy, peapods, tofu/chicken, onions, garlic etc., and rice), peanut butter, endless smoothies, salad(s), baked items, homemade dressings, beef jerkey, tunafish delish!, bread, fish, etc.
Thank you for your thoughts/comments.
MOM-B

ANSWERS: Andrea and Debbie both answered this question.  Be sure to read to the end.

Dear Mom-B,
It’s great that your son is so interested in cooking and is an adventurous eater! There are an overwhelming number of excellent cookbooks, websites, and food blogs, and it can take some time to find the ones that really speak to you. Since I work in the Children’s department, I looked through our collection to find some titles that may be of interest. Try:
Honest Pretzels by Mollie Katzen. This book, written by the founder of the Moosewood restaurant, contains healthy , delicious vegetarian recipes.
There’s a Chef In My Soup. Celebrity chef Emeril LaGasse has written  a fun collection of recipes from appetizers to desserts for kids.
Sweet Eats by Rose Dunnington, a mouthwatering collection of baked treats to make at home.
The Math Chef by Joan D’Amico reminds us that cooking is a math activity, but mostly is about making good stuff to eat!
Funny Food by Bill and Claire Wurtzel, while not a cookbook per se, will give you some creative ideas on putting some personality into your breakfast, and the photos will definitely make you smile!

I like to bake, so one website I enjoy is King Arthur Flour. There’s lots of great recipes and loads of information about baking. King Arthur is based in Norwich, VT and the store there makes for a fun little road trip (about 2 hours from Chelmsford). I also highly recommend Cooks Illustrated, but….content is not free. You can become a member for $34.95/year. Cook’s provides obsessively detailed information about food and cooking, along with videos, online cooking lessons, equipment tests and reviews, and of course recipes.

Debbie found these great resources:

Some good books at our library are:
Real food real fast, Sam Stern, J641.5/Ster
ChopChop, The Kids’ Guide to cooking real food with your Family, Sally Sampson, J641.5/Sam
Honest Pretzels : and 64 other amazing recipes for cooks ages 8 and up , Molly Katzen, J641.5/Katz

We also have the magazine, ChopChop, in the Children’s Section. It’s a fun cooking magazine for kids.

Other recommended cookbooks available through interlibrary loan are;
Mayo Clinic Kids’ Cookbook, Mayo Clinic
One World Kids Cookbook, Sean Mendez
Superfood Smoothies, Julie Morris

Some websites that you may want to look at:
Kids Health Recipes and cooking
Food Network – family and Kids
Cooking with Kids
Two websites from PBS: Kitchen Explorers and Hey Kids Lets Cook

YouTube videos:
Kids can Cook YouTube Channel

Cooking Shows:
Food Network has a Kid-oriented cooking show, called Rachael Vs. Guy: Kids Cook-Off and Fox Network has MasterChef Junior.

Happy cooking.