This piece from Bon Appetit reads more like a parody of the emoted eating habits of the chattering class than a serious guide to getting your children more involved in the kitchen:
We started our kids on organic pureed butternut squash baby food and now they’re chopping summer squash for succotash with a butter knife. They started by eating string cheese and they’re now savoring Stilton. We avoided ancho chiles, but they unexpectedly taught us that they love anchovies. The moral of the story is: don’t cook down to your kids. Cook with them.
The writer is trying a little hard for alliteration (pun intended). This is from Rule 1, “Feed Them Perfect Produce”
Buy the best, ripe, in-season, local produce you can find, whether at a grocery store or farmer’s market. Asparagus in spring to teach your kids the essential less [sic] of eating seasonally and locally. Strawberries in summer. Apples in fall. Citrus in winter. Perfection. Perfection. Perfection.
Here’s more from Rule 6, “Be Honest’”
Chicken is from a bird. Beef is from a cow. Pork is from a pig. Tell your kids the truth about animals and they can make their own choices about what they’re comfortable eating (old Macdonald [sic] had a farm and he had an oink oink for bacon; remember that one?). Our 7 year old omnivore Violet knows the deal and has come to the decision that she doesn’t like the deal, but she still hasn’t given up good old cured meat like bacon or prosciutto. It’s too yummy for now. We’ve taught her about the difference between happily raised animals and sadly raised factory farm ones, but her heart’s just not into the carnivore thing right now.
In a perfect world, all parents would engage their children about food in this manner… after the au pair has read them this week’s chapter from The Omnivore’s Dilemma and before the whole family kneels and begs Gaia to absolve them of their exhalations.
