A Beijing Dad’s Insight on Kids in the Kitchen

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When I was in middle school, Home Economics was an elective that was laughed at as “the girly class”, and some boys were too embarrassed to admit that they wanted to learn about culinary arts. Um, excuse me, but how is a love for delicious food exclusively for girls? For me, cooking is more like a combination of science and art. You get to experiment with different ingredients, discover new flavor combinations, and find out how all sorts of matter changes in different environments. Long story short, cooking is fun!

If the number of waimai boxes piling up during this COVID-19 quarantine tells us anything, it’s that many of us have become too dependent on food deliveries. But, some parents are putting a stop to that starting from a young age by letting their kids experiment in the kitchen and create their own recipes.

Henry Timberlake is a familiar face in the food and beverage industry. This food consultant is no stranger in the kitchen and he’s shared his love for food with his 5-year-old son, Evan.

Do you let your son experiment in the kitchen?

Of course I let Evan experiment in the kitchen! Because he doesn’t know what goes with what yet, I lay out different ingredients and kind of guide him on the process, but I let him make the decisions on what goes into his dish.

Are you concerned about his safety in the kitchen? How do you deal with that?

Yes, there are definitely concerns and a lot of it has to do with gas fire. What I do is I turn off the gas and put an electric cooktop on a cutting board. I feel that the electric cooktop is a lot safer and a better way to get cooking at an early age, without being physically burned by flames.

Also, he knows that there are ‘Daddy knives’ and ‘Evan knives’ in our kitchen. Evan knives are normal table knives that can cut through vegetables and he’s using those to learn cutting techniques.

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How old do you think kids need to be before parents let them experiment in the kitchen unsupervised?

My son’s only 5 and he barely knows how to turn on the stovetop. But I think when you start them out at an early age you can also teach them how to clean up and put away things. Until someone can learn to clean up and put away things properly when cooking with them, they need to be supervised. And that process can take years. Who knows? Maybe 10 or 12?

Is it important for kids to know how to cook?

It’s definitely important for kids to know how to cook, but it’s more important for them to know how and where food comes from. They need to know the process of care and the painstaking effort it takes to cultivate food. I feel that if they don’t have those roots of when and how the food got to the table, then how can they respect cooking and food in general?

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Photos: Henry Timberlake, 123nourishme.com

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