The young ones

Good Food Blog

What is RSS?

Posted at 3:45PM, 11 June 2010 by Emily Boyce - Sub-editor, bbcgoodfood.com

Yesterday, the average age in Good Food's test kitchen fell by twenty years. In place of our cookery team were six budding chefs, aged between 11 and 13, finalists in the Guild of Food Writers' annual CookIt! competition, judged by grown-up-kids Stefan Gates and Valentine Warner, along with Good Food's Sarah Cook.

When I was 13, the most advanced my cooking got was experimenting with things-on-toast

When I was 13, the most advanced my cooking got was choosing my own pizza toppings, concocting exotic sandwich fillings and experimenting with things-on-toast. Consider, in contrast, some of the recipe titles on the finalists' menus: Ballotine of pheasant with braised red cabbage, spiced carrot purée and a potato foam, from 13-year-old Robbie; Seared duck breast with chocolate chilli sauce, by Freya, also 13; Tuna steak served with pea purée and vegetable crème fraîche, from 13-year-old Carla; Banana and cinnamon soufflé with sticky toffee sauce and pistachio cream, by 11-year-old Elliot. They wouldn't sound out of place on the menu at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant.

Thirteen-year-old Anamay's delicately spiced lamb chops suggested an Atul Kochhar in the making, while 12-year-old Rex's mackerel cooked in sea water, which he'd swum out to collect, clearly struck a chord with outdoors-loving Valentine Warner.

With just an hour and a half to cook two courses in an unfamiliar kitchen, surrounded by judges and photographers, if it was me it wouldn't have been just the onions sweating. But each of the finalists calmly got on with the job (they'd obviously learned practice makes perfect), swiftly peeling celeriac and blitzing herbs with stick blenders, and turning out really impressive food - you can get your hands on the recipes in the October issue of Good Food magazine.

TV programmes like Junior MasterChef show kids to be just as passionate and confident in the kitchen as the grown-ups. The fluency of the junior contestants in the language of the adult MasterChef series ('This means everything to me', 'It's been a journey'), and food vocabulary in general, suggests they've grown up watching cookery programmes, which fill the schedules like never before.

Do you think kids are becoming better cooks, and if so, is it down to an education via food programmes? Have you always been a keen cook, or did it come later in life?

Comments

lds1985

14 June 2010, 12:40PM
lds1985

This is such good news!! It is great to see what effect the foodie movement is having on our young, future head chefs!!!

Flag as inappropriate

Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

Your name: Reason:
Cassandra Amy Rose

14 June 2010, 7:20PM
Cassandra Amy Rose

I'm really glad to read this post, because a lot of people think that kids just can't produce good food. I'm only 12 myself, but I absolutely LOVE cooking with a passion, I know it sounds conceited but as I was watching junior master chef I was thinking, I could maybe make things like that!

Flag as inappropriate

Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

Your name: Reason:
Nicola

15 June 2010, 3:00PM
Nicola

I think some are becoming better cooks, but there are so many kids out there brought up on frozen meals that have no idea where tomatoes come from, or what time of year strawberries are in season. It's fantastic to hear about kids with so much passion! If only schools could step up their game a bit and try to fill the gap left by parents who don't have the knowledge about food and cooking.

Flag as inappropriate

Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

Your name: Reason:
Girl Flower

15 June 2010, 4:51PM
Girl Flower

Go for it Cassandra, Im sure you could make things like that!!! It is excellent to see that some youngsters are enjoying food (proper food!) we need to keep up the good work and encourage others wherever we can!

Flag as inappropriate

Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

Your name: Reason:
Mrs Chutney

17 June 2010, 4:00PM
Mrs Chutney

Well said Nicola. Anything that encourages schools & parents is to be encouraged. Does anyone have other ideas or know of something which is good practice?

Flag as inappropriate

Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

Your name: Reason:
Cassandra Amy Rose

18 June 2010, 2:05PM
Cassandra Amy Rose

Hey thank you flower girl!

Flag as inappropriate

Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

Your name: Reason:
Donna Callaghan

30 June 2010, 11:45AM
Donna Callaghan

I'm a teacher in in my school we have an after school cookery club run by the head teacher to promote healthy cooking skills to 8yr olds. It is great fun and the fruit smoothies and healthy pizzas went down a treat!!!

Flag as inappropriate

Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

Your name: Reason:

Your binder

Here are three other great reasons to sign up:

You get an online binder, where you can store all your favourite recipes and create menus.
You can add your own recipes to this site for others to try; plus, rate and make comments on recipes, and share your views on our blog.
You can sign up for our weekly newsletter (sent out on Wednesdays) - it's packed with recipes, special offers and competitions.