The Importance of Cooking with Children & The Gentle Art of Cookery (Book Review)
One of my biggest “beefs” in food, is that we now seem to have been persuaded that in order to keep ourselves nourished, we need to be immensely talented. Chef talented. When really all it is, is in the best way, to learn as a child in a natural way, at home or in school.
Now before, you slam your laptop lid shut and roar, HOW DO WE DO THAT, WE ALL HAVE TO WORK! My mother and father both worked, but I learned in school, as well as occasional baking forays with my mother and other family at the weekend.
So, I was absolutely charmed when recently flicking through one of Quadrille’s most recent Classic Voices in Food, The Gentle Art of Cookery by Mrs CF Leyel & Miss Olga Hartley, originally published in 1925. Tucked towards the back of the book is a gorgeous and comprehensive chapter on cooking with children.
Contained within are lots of classics that I remember making like fudge, meringues and toffee. There are some unusual things which probably wouldn’t wash now, like an ostrich egg made using a dozen hens eggs with a pigs bladder for a mould (!!!). I love it. There are many other chapters of course, including one dedicated to chestnuts, home made wines and cups and the more traditional fish, meat, poultry
The pre-amble to the chapter is beautiful, and I think conveys a message most of us have now forgotten. And that is, just how magical it is for a child to cook in a kitchen. I’ve reproduced it here for you. I would highly recommend buying the book.
Many children listen to the story of Cinderella with their sympathy for the heroine warped by the reflection that at any rate she was given the free run of the kitchen when the family departed for the ball. Most children prefer the kitchen to the nursery or drawing-room. If the cook is an Irishwoman, she will welcome the society of five or six children in the kitchen at all hours; if she is any other nationality she will probably prefer them one at a time or not at all. But it is a pity when a child is debarred from all contact with the practical affairs of the home during its impressionable years, and anyway, the time to interest children in cookery is when they are under twelve, when their education cannot or should not be all book work, and when it is undiluted bliss to be allowed to shell peas, pick currants and whisk eggs. By the time they are eighteen the glamour of life will be re-oriented. but when they are very young there is romance in the oven and the singing kettle.
A child in the kitchen is an alchemist learning the properties of these mysterious elements – fire and water. A saucepan is a crucible in which anything might happen. Cooking is sheer magic to the child, pure white magic. A child watches the kneading of flour and water into dough and the transmutation of the pale dough into crusty loaves and brown cakes with the delighted wonder with which the cherubim and seraphim must have looked on at the creation of the world.
It is easy to give children the natural primitive pleasure of making things themselves. They can make or help to make their own toffee and ginger beer; they can cut their own gingerbread ducks and whales. Not all of the following recipes are intended to be made by children themselves. The “ostrich-egg” calls for some skill, and the point of others is their surprise. But they have been chosen because they will appeal to children by providing the combination of the familiar with the unexpected, which is the real zest of pleasure to children all over the world.
Lovely post – thanks Niamh. So much of this is true. My five year old just loves being in the kitchen with us and I’m sure this early exposure has contributed to her enjoyment of food. She’s really happy to try new things. I also started cooking early and have fond memories of regular Sunday afternoon baking sessions. It’s great fun for kids (and the chance to develop fundamental skills).
This sounds like a lovely book. Having four kids under my apron strings, I have to say I agree that it is important to keep the kids in the kitchen, most of the time.
We see so many kids that will not touch food that has colour or a bone, because it does not resemble what they are used to, which is a dried and dated friend chicken nugget.
Teaching them about food when they are young is imperative.
Or * fried * chicken nugget. Stoopid iPhone spell checker auto corrector!
How lovely, and how true of then and now. I used to teach children to cook before I had my children, and now I write a little blog about it – http://mixmashandmunch.blogspot.com. My 2 are never happier than when cracking eggs, licking the spoon and generally getting mucky. I just have to take a big deep breath and forget the mess! I am not sure whether we will manage the ostrich eggs though. Tonight is crunchy salmon – salmon nuggets that they coat in flour, egg and weetabix, which is their most favourite recipe to make, they even instruct grandma how to make it!
Ain’t that the truth Ruth. Despite the mess, the calamity, the noise, the pastry on the ceiling, the flour on the floor, it’s great fun having kids in the kitchen.
Nice review Niamh, I will look out for this now.
The kitchen was my babysitter as a child, likewise for my brothers. We were all taught how magical the kitchen can be and our guide was a very accomplished, self-taught parent. The experience was invaluable- not only can we all feed ourselves competently, but we all make it a point to pass on the knowledge, skill and flavor profiles to the little ones in the family (and elsewhere).
I work with Native Americans on occasion and I try to rekindle the excitement in what the “grandmas” and elders prepared for centuries- all by hand, directly from the ground to the grinding stones to the table. Its no different than any other kid learning from an elder, be they a Yiddisha Momma (as in my case) or today’s hipster urban homsteader.
I do, on occasion, endorse a good flour fight if the flooring is not a concern. :)
What a lovely book, so important to involve children in the kitchen and see real food being prepared.
Congrats on your OFM award too! well deserved