Top tips to introduce pre-teens to cooking

Cooking is a skill that serves well not only in emergencies, but also to develop creativity and logic at the same time. When a child cooks, he or she gets to know the result of the experiment immediately. What better way to demonstrate how science works in everyday life? So get your under 12 gang into the kitchen at the earliest. Here are some tips to make it safe fun.  

Start with safety  
Younger children can use plastic knives or the sides of spoons and forks for cutting. Taste unfamiliar ingredients before you give them to kids, check expiry dates of packaged products they have bought. Kids below 10 are not to be trusted with fire, large knives or carrying large utensils with hot food. Children love laying the table. Show them how to carry and place glassware. They should not carry glass crockery into the kitchen.  

Lay out pre-cooking hygiene  
Set a hygiene regimentation. Washing hands before they start, and washing them each time they switch activities is very important. Utensils should be cleaned with soap, rinsed, and if possible, dried. Chopping boards, stone slabs, sinks should all be washed before and after cooking. Fresh vegetables can be disinfected by soaking in water and baking soda. Fresh meat and fish should be cleaned carefully. Girls need to tie back their hair.  

Use smart kitchen prep 
Teach kids kitchen management, where to put cups and saucers, where to put cutting utensils, how to clean and refrigerate fresh vegetable and meat you will not be cooking that day. This is creative and fun, and a great way to introduce them to the kitchen as an organised space.  

Make it fun for your kids 
Wearing aprons, cracking eggs neatly, squeezing lemons and tomatoes, keeping an eye on milk as it boils can all be fun. Cooking should never feel like a task, that will make them unwilling.  

Allow limited independence to 10-12-year-olds 
At this age, kids can read labels, understand and follow simple recipes. Supervise them less, but keep an eye. Get them started with knives, frying pans, limited use of fire, and full use of microwave.