Think kids only eat pizza, burgers and chicken nuggets? Amanda Grant’s recipes prove their love for food goes much deeper than that
- In cookbook The Silver Spoon for Children – Favourite Italian Recipes, Amanda Grant shows how broad-minded children are, despite what their parents think
- The dishes for them to make include summer cannellini bean salad, chicken breasts stuffed with mascarpone, polenta gnocchi and roast leg of lamb in herb crust
When I was growing up in the United States, I observed that many parents there underestimated their children’s’ tastes. At home they would feed them hot dogs, chicken nuggets and frozen fish fingers while at restaurants their kids would always order from the children’s menu, which listed the same dishes, plus pizza and burgers.
Fortunately, Amanda Grant, who specialises in food writing for children and founded Cook School, a British-based non-profit organisation that teaches kids about food and how to cook, assumes that children are more broad-minded (or would that be broad-palated?) than their parents give them credit for.
In The Silver Spoon for Children – Favourite Italian Recipes (2009), she not only gives a broad range of Italian recipes that aren’t dumbed down just because they are targeted at children, but also gets those youngsters to cook them.
In the introduction, Grant writes, “Over the centuries, Italians have discovered exactly how to mix a few simple, good-quality ingredients to make meals that are full of flavour. For instance, you can make a delicious sauce for pasta with just a few basic items such as good-quality canned tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic and a good olive oil.
“The recipes in this book will help you learn some key skills and techniques used in any kitchen, not just Italian ones: you will learn how to use a small sharp knife (which is essential if you are going to do some proper cooking!), how to prepare vegetables, how to cook pasta, even how to make your own pizza dough from scratch.