Teaching cooking as nutrition education and family therapy – something FamilyCook Productions does for schools, community and social services agencies – offers extraordinary group dynamics. 

Throughout the school day, children are grouped by their age and abilities.  In afterschool and community settings and certainly in social services settings, there are at least 3 major benefits to assigning cooking tasks by level of difficulty to participants of different ages.

1.  Engagement flourishes with age-appropriate roles.  Parents can hesitate to invite their children into the kitchen if they are unsure how to do so safely and efficiently.  They ‘buy in’ with fewer fears after participating in a class where a three- year-olds tear up greens and lettuces, while a third grader grates a potato and adolescents are taught to use a chef’s knife to become the family meal sous chef and make scratch cooking a breeze, But the value of combining ages in class settings extends beyond the distinguishing between different ages and appropriate tasks they can safely accomplish.

 2. Bonding.  After 20 years of program development and support to our affiliates across the US, it’s evident that people love to cook together.  Cooking creates a common bond with little ones looking up to older siblings or schoolmates.  Adolescents and elementary aged children are equally enthusiastic and proud to be able to support younger helpers to make a solid contribution to a shared meal.  There is a huge win-win opportunity to recognize that everyone – regardless of age, has something valuable to contribute.

This point was brought home when our FamilyCook Productions founder, Lynn Fredericks, first started out with her own children.  There is a 6 and a half year age gap between her two sons.  Back in the 90's when Stephan was a toddler in the kitchen, Lynn took great pains to make sure he had a very defined job with each recipe so he would not feel eclipsed by his older brother.  Such role designation plays out similarly in a program session, where younger children chop pre-sliced tomatoes or peppers into a tiny dice on a plastic plate with a plastic knife while older children learn to use a chef’s knife and practice professional slicing and dicing.  Everyone contributes based on their ability and everyone shares in the sense of contribution and accomplishment.

3. Practice in class makes for successful translation to home.  Apart from parents with twins or triplets, most parents don’t have all 3rd graders at home.  By practicing age specific roles and tasked in a mixed age class, all family members return home not only with an understanding of the boundaries around their capabilities, but how to ask or offer help.  This is an essential development for harmonious family cooking.  If little ones are determined not to ask for help and frustrate parents with their insistence to do tasks inappropriate for their age and ability, parents will not feel motivated to have them in the kitchen. It’s really that simple. But the class experience sets up the parameters in a positive way that celebrates every participants contribution. Both parents and older siblings experience the satisfaction of assisting younger family members to help. Everyone cheers for the youngest helper’s success and accomplishment.  

This is how youth in Teen Battle Chef across the US approach their growing interest in cooking at home. They have learned so much in the program midway, and are assigned a family cooking activity designed to include ALL family members. They, the Teen Battle Chefs, know exactly how to safely engage all family members and demonstrate to their parents that cooking can be a happy, delicious and nutritious family affair.

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