CHOMP

New in town

Ice cream camp Expand your palate this summer at Salt & Straw with the ice cream shop’s June Camping Series. Your kids can sample flavors like Buttermilk Pancake, Bacon and Eggs, Campfire S’Mores, Skillet Cornbread with Candied Nettles and Pine Nuts, and Mushroom Muddy Buddies; it’s a great opportunity to try new wild flavor combinations.

Salt & Straw, 714 E. Pike St., 5420 Ballard Ave. NW, saltandstraw.com

„ Find family-friendly food on the Seattle’s Child app » seattleschild.com/app

» Chomp

Eating with kids

Edouardo Jordan wants his son to be able to distinguish certain aromas.

Eating with Edouardo

The award-winning Seattle chef believes kids should experience food with all five senses

by JACKIE VARRIANO / photo by JOSHUA HUSTON

Edouardo Jordan is the superstar chef behind a trio of Ravenna hotspots (Salare, JuneBaby,

Lucinda Grain Bar). In 2018, JuneBaby won the award for Best New Restaurant and Jordan took home the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest. But as the father of 5-year-old Akil, he wants to get one thing straight.

“I’m not some chef where only I can cook my food for my son and we only eat the best of the best in the world,” he says.

Cooking is his career, but he has to “determine what I have time for and how elaborate or how simple I need to be at certain times. Sometimes it’s just about getting substance into the body and it’s a fast meal, or it’s going to pick up food or a partial meal I can put together myself.”

Right under your nose! U-pick berries

Keep little fingers busy (or recreate Blueberries for Sal, minus the bear) at an area U-pick berry farm. A few tips: Check before you go to ensure the farm is open for the season, arrive early for better picking, bring cash, and don’t forget your sun protection. If all else fails, pick up pre-picked berries at the farm or at your favorite farmers market.

Bolles Organic Berry Farm: Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. 17930 Tualco Loop Rd., Monroe facebook.com/ bollesorganic Blue Dot Farm: Blueberries. 21010 SE 416th St., Enumclaw bluedotfarm.com Bill’s Berry Farm: Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. 3674 N. County Line Rd., Grandview. billsberryfarm.com Schuh Farms: Strawberries, raspberries, tayberries. 15565 State Rt. 536, Mount Vernon. Facebook: Schuh Farms

The Sammamish Montessori School In Redmond Now Enrolling

Call 425-883-3271 for a tour.

• Child-centered, joyful atmosphere with strong academic focus • Experienced, Montessori-certified teachers • Preschool, kindergarten, and STEAM Enrichment • Family owned and operated since 1977 • Summer, before & after school programs • Prep Program, (starting ages 2 1 /2-3)

www.sammamishmontessori.com • 425-883-3271

Dream big. Plan ahead.

Washington College Savings Plans can help you start saving towards a brighter future. Learn more at wastate529.wa.gov

Enroll Nov 1 - May 31 Start saving today

GET and DreamAhead are qualified tuition programs sponsored and distributed by the State of Washington. The Committee on Advanced Tuition Payment and College Savings administers and the Washington Student Achievement Council supports the plans. DreamAhead investment returns are not guaranteed and you could lose money by investing in the plan. If in-state tuition decreases in the future, GET tuition units may lose value.

«Chomp

CONTINUED

And while Jordan says he hopes Akil doesn’t show too much of an interest in cooking as a profession, his son is curious about food, the kitchen, and especially ingredients.

“He’s now talking about spices. He learned about black pepper, so he asks for black pepper a lot now. As soon as he learns one, he wants to incorporate it into his eating.”

Jordan tries to foster this curiosity by exposing Akil to ingredients — from carrots to calendula flowers — and talking about using all five senses to experience food.

“Some parents might hate me for this, and some parents might love me for this; my kid doesn’t drink booze, but I allow him to smell booze. This is what this wine smells like, this is what a brandy smells like or a ginger liqueur. I want him to understand what senses are and what certain aromas are.”

Jordan believes that this curiosity starts with parents, noting that if you aren’t a person who eats green vegetables, it’ll be doubly hard to get your kid to eat them as well.

“It’s all about exposure,” he says.

He recently got Akil to try parsnips by pairing the root with a familiar ingredient — an apple.

“I said ‘Grab the apple and grab the roasted parsnip and eat them together. It’s going to blow your mind.’ And he looked at me and he smiled and bit into it, blinked a couple times and then looked back at me, and I was like, ‘I told you!’”

Jordan says exposure doesn’t stop with ingredients and fostering curiosity to try new foods. He also believes kids should be exposed to restaurants early, starting with Akil when he was only a week old.

“Don’t be afraid to start young, because if they’re not going to be acclimated to that environment of sitting down for 45 minutes and eating at a young age, how are they supposed to adapt at the age of 2 when they haven’t been exposed to it very much?”

If the parenting world of Jordan has a theme, it’s exposure. Expose kids to the lights and sounds and experience of a restaurant early, expose them to the sights and smells of ingredients, ready or not.

“Yeah, it’s not going to be easy,” he says with a laugh. But getting those big-kid smiles, like Akil gives him, make all the growing pains that come with exposure worthwhile.