They Can Bring Home The Bacon, Fry It Up In A Pan - children as gourmet cooks - Brief Article

Brandweek, July 2, 2001 by Alissa A. Nolan

As someone who uses the phone as the primary tool in dinner preparation, I regret that I wasn't exposed to the culinary world at an impressionable age. Because if so, maybe I'd be eating a bit healthier these days. Perhaps I'd also be more willing to try new, exotic foods and less likely to hand off half my paycheck to a steady stream of delivery people. But kids today may not suffer my fate, hints trend tracker Big Blue Dot, Watertown, Mass.: They're becoming child Julia Childs.

"Bam!" as a certain chef/celeb would say--just like that, kids seem to be trading in their baseball mitts for oven mitts and taking over stoves in droves. Was it Elmo's appearance on The Frugal Gourmet that sparked the trend? Or all the young cooks featured on talk shows and on bookstore shelves lately? Whatever the case, something has lured kids to the kitchen, and not just to bug their folks by whining "What's for dinner?"

Arguably the most self-reliant generation ever since many were raised by choice-loving Boomer parents, 6- to 17-year-olds are deciding what's for dinner and whipping it up themselves. One young Maryland gourmet cooked up cajun shrimp clemenceau on The Rosie O'Donnell Show and andouille sausage potato cakes on Emeril Live! That sixth grader learned his sizzling skills watching cooking shows at home, but other children rely on more structured learning. In fact, enrollment in Seattle-based Sur La Table's kids cooking classes nationwide has increased tenfold since 1996.

As they do for many activities, youngsters are even dressing the part: Several manufacturers of chef garb have opened children's divisions whose sales are thriving.