annieb123's Review of How To Cook Everything Kids (How to Cook Everything, #9)

by Mark Bittman

Mark Bittman’s first cookbook for kids is here! His newest in the beloved How to Cook Everything series focuses on empowering children with all the kitchen skills they need to choose, prepare, and cook the foods they like with the people they love.

Mark Bittman inspires kids to be more adventurous eaters by teaching them first how to identify and cook their favorite foods, then build from there. With flexible recipes designed for all the ways kids approach meals and snacks, How to Cook Everything Kids promises to turn the kitchen into a place of joy and discovery. The detailed recipe directions and fun features for key ingredients, techniques, and basics are all written specifically with little hands in mind, while Bittman covers navigating your kitchen, what different tools do, and preparing and measuring ingredients. These tools help kids ages 8 to 12 (give or take) develop confidence and independence in the kitchen so they learn when to lean on adults, and how to make their own simple swaps and variations. The result is a cookbook that can be customized for every individual child.

How to Cook Everything Kids includes:

Chapters covering every meal and food group: Breakfast Any Time; Flavor Bursts (sauces); Hold On! (sandwiches and other finger foods); Sips and Spoonfuls (soups); Edible Colors (a vegetable primer with flexible recipes for all the basic techniques); Pasta and Noodles; Grains and Beans; The Big Stuff (satisfying mains); Now Bake Something; and Sweets.
Make Friends with Your Kitchen, an expanded opening chapter designed to familiarize kids with their equipment and ingredients, and all the cooking words they need to know.
Visual guides from photography and cartoons to snapshots of everyday kids cooking Bittman’s recipes in their kitchens encourage the next generation of home cooks to explore and create.
Recipes for every skill level: Bittman covers everything from kid go-to’s like Scrambled Eggs, Quesadillas, and Popcorn in a Pot, into more complex dishes like Roasted Veggies, Chicken Mark Nuggets, and Banana Bread. Features on skills like frosting a cake, building a grain bowl, and making an epic sandwich teach kids how to try even more as their knowledge and skills grow.

How to Cook Everything Kids is a perfect introduction for kids looking to get into the kitchen and start cooking.

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

How To Cook Everything Kids is the 9th cookbook in the How To Cook Everything series by Mark Bittman. Released 15th Oct 2024 by Wm. Morrow on their Harvest imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.

This is an impressively accessible, kid friendly, appealing book full of appetizing healthy recipes, many of which kids can make with minimal adult supervision (depending on the kid of course). The graphics are cool and vibrant, and the photography is crisp and in color.

It's a comprehensive, encyclopedic collection with a nice selection of recipes. They're arranged thematically: an introduction/primer gives an overview over equipment and processes, then the recipes follow by chapter - breakfast, sauces/sprinkles/drizzles, hand held sandwiches, soups, salads and sides, pasta/noodles, grains & beans, main dishes, baked goods, and desserts.

Recipes are written with an introduction & description, ingredients in a bullet list, followed by step-by-step cooking directions. The language is simple but complete and readers will have no trouble following. Recipe ingredients are provided with imperial (American) measurements only, no metric units. Nearly all the recipes are accompanied by one or more color photos and tutorials.

The action shots and prep photos throughout the book are modeled by kids, which is a cool touch and adds a lot to the book.

Five stars. One of the better kids' cooking books. It would be an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition or home use.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Reading updates

29 October, 2024: Started reading

29 October, 2024: Finished reading

29 October, 2024: Reviewed