Their first steps in the world of food. In the kitchen with the kids

by Rosalia Cavalieri Essayist and Full Professor of Philosophy and Theory of Languages at the University of Messina

1. FOOD CULTURE AND THE EDUCATION OF TASTE

Academic disciplines have never given food culture and the education of taste the place they deserve, either ignoring such topics entirely, or viewing them with an unconstructive, unhelpful attitude. This has led to their exclusion from curricula, which display a lack of interest in the wide-ranging, varied world of “material culture”, an area of knowledge whose importance has been seriously underestimated, also due to its links with daily life and the physical aspects of the human condition. These aspects are often taken for granted or considered marginal compared to activities and knowledge of a theoretical nature, which, as such, are deemed to possess a “higher” cultural and intellectual status, on a par with beliefs, knowledge, myths or laws. Nonetheless, in recent times, nutrition has become the object of more systematic study, not necessarily linked to nutrition and medicine, to the point that today we can talk of the broad field known as Food Studies (see Anderson, Brady, Levkoe, 2016), which deals with the food “system” in all its possible forms, as both a material and cultural product. So, while we have clearly rediscovered the undeniable value of food and everything that revolves around it, and have become more aware of how we eat, it is also true that as consumers we remain profoundly ignorant (cf. Cavalieri, 2020).

Teaching about taste and the conscious pleasure that it can give us, becoming aware of how important the act of consuming food is, by means of a serious, systematic, solid cultural education, which starts with know-how and bodily experience, is now a necessity, especially if we consider the effects that the way we eat can have on our well-being and that of the environment. This process should start early, in infancy, in order to provide children with meaningful experiences aimed at promoting a conscious, healthy, balanced and fun approach to an activity that is an integral part of our daily life and a chance to express our intelligence: eating and knowing how to eat. I would thus like to examine how important it is to involve children in the preparation and transformation of food through cookery, so that spending time in the kitchen becomes a significant opportunity for their education in food and taste.

2. EDUCATING BY COOKING

First of all, cooking is one of the most species-specific activities of the human animal, whose origins take us back to our ancestor Homo erectus, who lived approximately one and a half million years ago (cf. Wrangram, 2009). Over time, cooking has become one of our most frequently repeated actions, an ordinary, everyday activity, which has played a central role in our history. It involves a process of transforming raw materials that are not always edible or good to eat into nutritious, tasty dishes which may themselves be a significant source of pleasure. Indeed, cooking was invented in order to generate pleasure, to increase and prolong the enjoyment of eating. However, it is also true that socio-economic changes in recent decades have also progressively and profoundly changed our relationship with the preparation of food and with the time dedicated to cooking and consuming it. This is especially true in Western societies, where continuous transformations have also changed the way we eat. Also due to a chronic lack of time, stress and the increasingly frenetic pace of our daily life, we have ended up cooking less, turning to the all-too-available yet low-quality ready-to-eat, practical, quick foods prepared by the food industry and commercial catering, deluding ourselves that true emancipation has been achieved, especially by women, traditionally the custodians of culinary know-how. In reality, all we have done is impoverish our sense of taste, our social relationships, including those in the family, and even our health: by failing to “keep the home fires burning”, we have ended up eating badly and chaotically; often on our own, we hurriedly shovel down industrial dishes, stripping food of its value and significance. A cultural food education project should envisage the need to restore to the kitchen that ancient prestige that made it an all-round learning environment, an environment in which children also had a place, preparing and sharing food, where they could learn to “appreciate [food] as a precious gift, and to use it while respecting the environment, the work of others and nature” (cf. Balzanò, 2016, p. 16). Involving children in cooking activities is thus an important step in promoting food culture and taste education, and in enhancing interaction with food, but it is also much more. In addition to being educational in the widest sense for children, cookery also gives the whole family a chance to engage in an activity which has become increasingly rare in the contemporary world. Despite having grown in popularity on TV and social networks, cookery is increasingly neglected in our homes.

3. CHILDREN AND COOKERY

We rarely consider the kitchen as a place where children can acquire maturity and experience, or see it as a learning environment, nor do we think that the selection, preparation and shared consumption of cooked foods are activities that should be encouraged from a young age, even though such skills will be useful in adulthood. Above all, for children, cooking is an exercise that develops all the senses, an opportunity to strengthen family ties, by fostering communication with parents, siblings, and grandparents, and a way to share practical life experience backed up by knowledge. But it also provides opportunities to create good memories that will be cherished over time. Allowing children to cook is also a way of educating them in the genuine, healthy flavours of home-cooked food, rather than something that has been industrially processed. For the little ones, cooking is thus a chance to exercise manual skills, dexterity, and eye-hand coordination, and to acquire greater control over their movements in space. It also helps them develop a sense of self-esteem through satisfaction with what they have successfully made, and will thus be more likely to eat and appreciate. The kitchen is therefore a place where children of all ages have a chance to engage in activities that stimulate their curiosity and their desire for new experiences. They also acquire greater awareness of their own body as they learn, while playing and having fun, to prepare simple and appetizing dishes, both sweet and savoury. At the same time, this experience strengthens emotional ties and encourages children to use their senses mindfully: touching, squeezing, looking, smelling, savouring, cleaning and washing vegetables, measuring, weighing, peeling, shelling, kneading, crumbling, whipping, rolling up and rolling out dough, mixing, cutting, prodding, assessing distinctions of colour and shade, tasting, and even before any of this, choosing ingredients. Last but not least, cookery improves manual skills and confidence, as children learn to touch different types of food and feel how their texture and consistency vary. Preparing food with children is also a practical way to get them used to avoiding waste, and to separate what waste there is into different types, to help them learn where ingredients come from, to respect food and those who

Bibliografia Essenziale

- Anderson, C. R., Brady, J., Levkoe C.Z., eds., 2016, Conversations in food studies, University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

- Balzanò, C., 2016, Il gusto di mangiare insieme. Dal cibo alla tavola: un’educazione alimentare in dieci tappe, Slow food Editore, Bra (CN).

- Bianchi, M., 2021, Cucinare insieme è un gioco buonissimo, Harpercollins Italia, Milano.

- Bottino, L. Speciani, L., 2014, Giocando in cucina. Come insegnare al palato dei bambini che il cibo buono è quello di casa, Tecniche Nuove, Milano.

- Cavalieri, R., 2020, Gastronomia consapevole. Istruzioni per l’uso, il Mulino, Bologna.

- Rossetti, L., Cagnin C. C., 2016, La cucina dei bambini, Blu edizioni, Torino.

- Wrangham, R. W., 2009, Catching fire: how cooking made us human, New York: Basic Books.

produced it, and to protect the environment. By spending time in the kitchen, children can also learn to keep the workspace tidy and clean, to organize utensils, to become responsible and to realize that preparing food for themselves and others is also a way of taking care of them. As they grow up, they will also be more independent and able to cook for themselves and their family. Involving them in food shopping helps them learn how to choose the best products, also in terms of the price-quality ratio, and encourages them to opt for fresh rather than readymade and/or packaged or frozen foods. It is also a chance to get them used to reading food labels.

Giving children the chance to take an active role in the kitchen also helps them overcome neophobias (i.e. the refusal of new and unknown foods) or to reassess foods they may not like, such as vegetables. Their outlook will change as they prepare and taste a wide range of foods as part of a more balanced, varied diet, and they will become more aware of what they eat as they acquire knowledge about ingredients, regarding their origin, pro-

FOR CHILDREN, COOKING IS AN EXERCISE THAT DEVELOPS ALL THE SENSES, WHILE BEING AN OPPORTUNITY TO STRENGTHEN FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS AND COMMUNICATION

IN THE KITCHEN, CHILDREN CAN ALSO LEARN ABOUT KEEPING THE ROOM TIDY AND CLEAN, AND HOW TO ORGANIZE UTENSILS. THEY CAN BECOME MORE RESPONSIBLE AND LEARN THAT PREPARING FOOD FOR THEMSELVES AND OTHERS ALSO MEANS TAKING CARE OF THEM duction processes, seasonality and growing areas, etc.. The last, but not least important advantage consists in getting children used to talking about this experience, as they explain and recount what they are doing, and name the ingredients. They should be asked to express an opinion, to use appropriate terms to describe what they smell (smells, tastes, appearance, texture). This will be extremely beneficial for their sensory memory and turn them into better-informed future consumers, but will also help them internalize food as knowledge and as an embodied experience. As for the most suitable foods for children to cook, it is a good idea to focus on simple, tasty recipes which involve relatively simple cooking methods, such as baking or stewing, rather than frying, for example. Children can be involved in everyday cooking activities by entrusting them with simple tasks, such as tasting what is being cooked, garnishing a dish, stirring ingredients together, washing vegetables, adding toppings to bruschetta, or setting and clearing the table. When you have more time, you can suggest trying more elaborate recipes, such as cakes, biscuits, pizza, gnocchi, pancakes or fruit ice lollies.The kitchen remains the beating heart of the home, where we engage in many different activities, and at the same time is a reliable, reassuring point of reference. As we may have been surprised to find out during the pandemic, cooking brings human warmth to our homes and makes them feel more “lived in”, and allows us to nourish our bodies and souls. But cooking with our children can create an atmosphere of sharing that is even warmer, more joyous and boisterous, and ultimately more enjoyable precisely because it is centred on the family.