The saying goes… give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. By this logic, if you teach a man how to cook with fish, they'll be making themselves the best seafood pasta outside Italy!
Many of us fall into the habit of cooking for our kids, even when they’re well into their teens and are old enough to cook for the family. Perhaps we want to make sure our children eat a balanced meal. Maybe we’re busy and just want to get dinnertime done. And perhaps we feel as our kids get older, by the very essence of surviving, they’ll learn how to cook a few basic dishes, and then that knowledge will grow once they leave the house.
Research shows learning the fundamental skill of cooking is essential to living a happy, healthy, and self-sufficient life and the sooner one learns how to do that…the better! Learning how to cook is one of the most fundamental and important skills of life. We all need to eat, and as much as a quick ‘grab and go’ is handy in a pinch, you can’t survive on Doritos alone.
Here are 10 science backed reasons your kids and teens should join you in the kitchen and learn the valuable skill of cooking.
COOKING TEACHES MATH SKILLS
From measuring quantities to recipe conversions to fractions and more, it is no secret that cooking is a great way to both learn and practice math skills. If your kid is having trouble with math, try teaching them through the joy of cooking. A perfect example of this is teaching fractions through doubling a recipe. Simply double the amounts for a recipe and then reduce them to a measurable amount. If you double ¾ cups of flour that makes 6/4 cups which then must be measured out as 1 ½ cups to add to the recipe. Learn the basic conversions for kilograms to pounds, or milliliters to liters. You can use skills like this to help with logic based word problems and mental math as well!
COOKING TEACHES SCIENCE
At its core, cooking is chemistry. It’s the perfect time to watch science come to life as chemicals and heat interact with ingredients. For example, did you know that when an ingredient is cooked with heat, it quite literally changes its molecular makeup? Even microwaving something has a myriad of science and chemistry behind it. Microwaving bread, for example, causes the starch and protein molecules to break down and react with each other, thus creating dozens of organic molecules. This is barely even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the science of cooking! Breakout the periodic table and teach your kids and teens science through cooking!
Learn how to make ravioli with a chef, live in Italy. It's a stay home date night you'll never forget.
COOKING TEACHES CREATIVITY
Cooking is considered an art form for a reason. While it may deal with left-brained matters such as math and science, it is the perfect outlet for right-brained, creative kids as well. The experience of cooking activates the senses. Your sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing all come together as you work through how to solve a problem from a different perspective. As your teen starts on their journey to learn how to cook, we encourage you to not use recipes when you can. This will allow them to use their creativity and senses to invent new dishes and new ways to do things. This simple act can fuel your kids creatively and give them a tasty treat in the process!
COOKING TEACHES ABOUT WORLD HISTORY AND MIGRATION
Learning about a culture's food is one of the best ways to learn about their people. Every dish has a story, and through it we learn of a culture's history, values, and core beliefs. A local cuisine is more than just food on a plate, it is an identity. In Italy for example, you will find people regularly spending hours in the kitchen creating elaborate family meals. This is because in Italian culture, food is synonymous with warmth, love, and pleasure. It’s how you show you care and the ideal way to spend time with loved ones. Tracing how a dish came to be will also tell you the history of a country. Looking at the influences on a cuisine is to look at the wars, rulers, economic turns, and more that a country has experienced. From learning about the history of Florentine flavors and the Medici family… to understanding how New Orleans was impacted by Canada… there’s so much rich history to explore in that Cannelloni or pot of Gumbo! Next time you eat your favorite meal, explore the history of it with your child. You’ll be shocked at just how much you can learn.
LEARNING TO COOK TEACHES ABOUT NUTRITION
Cooking is the perfect way to learn about nutrition, which will set your child up for success as they learn how to make long term healthy decisions. If you have a young athlete in the house, learning about the nutrients in ingredients and the combination of how different foods create more complete proteins is a wonderful way to encourage curiosity about cooking. The earlier your teenager sets healthy habits for themselves the better. In fact, a 2018 study from the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior showed that learning how to cook as a young adult led to positive, long lasting health benefits.
Learn how to make Mother Italian Sauces with a chef, video calling you live from Italy.
COOKING TEACHES ABOUT AGRICULTURE
You don’t need to enroll your teen in 4H of FFA to teach them about the world of agriculture. If you approach cooking with curiosity, you can easily learn about agriculture through your ingredients. Next time you're making apple pie, take a moment to explore the origins of the fruit with your teen. Ask if they know where those apples came from and how they ended up on your table. If you’re having fruit salad for breakfast, you might be surprised to know that Italy actually produces the world’s most kiwi fruit. Why? Look to the basics of agriculture and you’ll understand. Simply tracing the journey of your meal will teach your children about farming, agriculture, climate, our food system, and more.
Master the art of Indian cooking in a private cooking class with a chef, live in India
COOKING IS A REWARDING ACTIVITY
Cooking is a rewarding activity where teens can enjoy the success of their labor in a quick and effective way. It teaches them how to finish what they’ve started and quite literally shows that hard work pays off. Something as simple as creating dough, kneading bread, and eating the finished product teaches kids they can do something valuable, and enjoy the benefits of it in a matter of hours. It might seem silly to say that bread teaches life skills, but when you look at what it means to set your mind to something, actually do it, and enjoy the rewards of it, it matters. And if that lesson is learned through a tasty dinner roll, then we say all the better!
LEARNING TO COOK HELPS YOU LOSE THE TASTE FOR JUNK FOOD
Cooking develops a more sophisticated palette that gears your kids away from the taste of junk food. It’s no secret that most kids and teens love salty and sugary junk food, but what if they learned how to create their own treats and snacks? They’ll develop sophisticated (and healthier!) palettes and reap the benefits forever.
Master the art of Mexican cooking in a private cooking class with a chef, live in Mexico.
COOKING IS AN EASY WAY TO MAKE FRIENDS AT COLLEGE
At The Chef & The Dish we always say that food is the ultimate human connector, a fact which applies to hungry college kids as well. The quickest way to a teens heart is through their stomach and with cooking skills under their belt, your kid will be the talk of the dorm. Something as simple as having friends over for a dinner party or handing out homemade cookies in their dorm hallway allows your teen to meet new people and create lasting bonds.
LEARNING TO COOK HELPS TEENS LEARN ABOUT THEIR HERITAGE
We’ve already established that cooking leads to invaluable life lessons and learning that can aid your teen in school and beyond. But why not turn that learning inward and let cooking be a chance to learn about your own family tree. As we’ve said, food teaches us about culture and is thus a beautiful opportunity to connect to your roots. So often family traditions and recipes are lost through both time and immigration. It’s important however, to honor those who came before us, and what better way to do that than through the traditional food that they loved. Take a day to teach your teen your grandmother’s pierogies, manti, or empanadas. They’ll not only learn a new dish, but they’ll learn time honored family traditions.
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The Chef & The Dish has chefs around the world that you video conference into your kitchen for a private 1:1 virtual cooking class. Learn how to make pasta with a chef video calling you live from Italy, Pad Thai with a chef virtually in your kitchen live from Thailand. Together you cook, share stories, laugh and make a multi course meal together. Rated 'Best Date Night,' 'Best Gifts,' and "Best Cooking Classes" by WSJ, Forbes, Vanity Fair, Martha Stewart, Rolling Stone and tens more. Transport your kitchen for the day.™
