Yay—It's Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day!

Kids in the Kitchen…Because?

There's a feast of yummy reasons for kids to be active participants in the kitchen every day (like it's fun!), but the Young Chefs Academy (YCA) established this particular culinary holiday to celebrate and empower kids and teens to be more actively involved in the planning, prep, and cooking of meals. YCA is the world's top cooking school for children, and its goal with KTOTKD is strengthening family bonds and actively fighting the battle against obesity and other serious health and social issues related to youth eating habits.

Fostering creativity in the kitchen helps kids build a solid nutritional foundation and develop a lifelong healthy relationship with food as they learn to cook. Cooking also teaches kids math, art, science, history, geography, and cultural and financial literacy, making the kitchen a delectable one-room schoolhouse. In tandem with cooking and baking techniques, table setting, and presentation, kids also learn etiquette and manners…more p's and q's + delicious food + stronger families = a better world.

Safety First

Before getting your cook on, you'll want to cover some safety and prep basics for kiddos, like handwashing, proper food handling, and kitchen safety, especially if your little chef is new to the kitchen…it's all fun and games until somebody needs stitches, and then, not so much. (Plus, blood in food is a big ewww.)

The Cooking with Kids Cookbook by Jane Stacey and Lynn Walters does an excellent job of educating wee (and not-so-wee) ones on healthy eating choices through hands-on learning with fresh, affordable foods from diverse cultures and is written for families to use together. Another good one that's full of tips, techniques, and deliciously fun recipes for the whole fam is Cooking with Kids: The Ultimate Kids Cookbook by Martha Stone.

Let the Culinary Merriment Begin

Once you've covered the basics of not getting sick or injured in the kitchen you can move on to the fun stuff—creating delicious (or at least palatable) fare, from kid staples like mac and cheese to fun snacks to slow cooker recipes, like the ones in Fix-It and Forget-It Cooking with Kids: 50 Favorite Recipes to Make in a Slow Cooker by Phyllis Good.

Other Titles to Fuel Mini-Chef Adventures:

• Williams-Sonoma Cooking Together: Having Fun in the Kitchen with Your Kids by Tatum Quon and Erin Quon
  Whimsical images and recipes for delicious, home-spun breakfasts, snacks, dinners, and desserts, such as French toast skewers with blueberry sauce, mini burgers with sweet potato fries, orange-yogurt pops, and snowball cupcakes make this book a win in the kitchen for kids and grownups of all ages.
• The Chop Chop: The Kids' Guide to Cooking Real Food with Your Family by Sally Sampson
  Winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Award, ChopChop is jam-packed with kitchen basics, ingenious tips, and great-tasting meals that are fun to make, every recipe is approved by the Academy of American Pediatrics and by real kids cooking at home. offers simple, healthy, and delicious dishes for children and parents to make together.
• Cooking Around the Country with Kids: USA Regional Recipes and Fun Activities by Amy Houts
  The concepts of cultural diversity and celebrating uniqueness through food combined with activities that engage kids with American history make this book fun (and educational!) in and out of the kitchen.
• Baking with Kids: Inspiring a Love of Cooking with Recipes for Bread, Cupcakes, Cheesecake, and More! by Camilla Perez and Lisa Flodin
  Perfect for kids who want to learn to bake, with helpful illustrations, numbered instructions, and safety tips for young chefs, with step-by-step instructions for favorites like cinnamon buns, strawberry shortcake, scones, crumb pie, berry pastries, Grandma's rolls, and more.
• Kids Cooking: Tasty Recipes with Step-by-Step Photos by the Editors of Klutz
  A classic collection of parent-approved meals includes a rainbow whisk and the perfect mix of tried-and-true recipes (like French Toast with Strawberry Butter) and totally modern flavors (like the Aloha Sushi Burrito).
• Cooking with Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon: A Cookbook for Kids by Jules Bash
  Offers kid-appropriate recipes for vegetarian pasta, soup, breads, main dishes, desserts, and other foods, including Dragonian Quesadillas, Veggie Sailboats, and Sweet Peppers.
• Williams-Sonoma: Holiday Cooking with Kids by Chuck Williams and Susan Manlin Katzman
  It's hard to go wrong with Williams-Sonoma cookbooks, and this one includes family-friendly recipes for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Passover, Mother's Day, and more for kids and tweens to create.

ThriftBooks has LOTS of cookbooks that are chock full of tips, guides, and fun, easy, and healthy recipes written just for kids, so if you're looking for something specific or you want to see more titles, be sure to do a search on ThriftBooks.com. Oh, and bon appetit!

Read more by Beth Clark