The Rock & Roll Chef®

A REAL BUSY WEEK OR SO, BUT IT'S BEEN FUN. Since last week, I've shot 3 separate cooking demos; I did manage to edit one as somewhat presentable.

I've been looking far & wide for something - anything - that resembles a respectable kid's cooking show. It's a wasteland, and that's both bad & good.

It's bad, because it's going to be a real uphill battle to try and pioneer kid's cooking lessons that aren't incredibly lame, condescending, patronizing and downright annoying. And is there some rule that says the music for these things also has to be lame as hell?

It's good for the same reason: Anything halfway decent will stand WAY out.

And so... my 8 year-old niece Hannah was in town over spring break, and we decided to have some fun with the Canon GL2 camera I'm using. Hannah is the perfect kid's cooking student: Fun, funny, fearless, smart, a real fast learner and a gamer. We shot line by line, and as she'd never done anything like this before, I think it came out pretty well.

Although we know there are lots of "grown ups" who're gonna freak, wait 'till they see the full-on "how to use a knife" demo we shot, too...

Labels: kids cooking show, rock n roll kitchen, totally chipotle

HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT'S BEEN GETTING OVER AS "KID'S COOKING SHOWS?" If you do a quick online search, you may be less than impressed about what seems to be the standard out there.

WE'VE BEEN DOING KID'S COOKING SHOWS FOR YEARS. And we're not talking the annoying "Today, we're going to make a smiley-face peanut butter sandwich!" drivel perpetually served up by most kid's programs, either. Based on this, we figure it's high time to start work on OUR version of a quality kid's cooking program. Title: The Rock & Roll Kitchen, Junior.

KIDS ARE NOT STUPID! Inexperienced, yes; but assuming they can't handle some basic cooking techniques is patronizing and condescending. Every future chef starts at the bottom, with simple duties they can handle; it should be no different with kids.

AND IF THE PARENTS DON'T KNOW HOW TO COOK... We've seen this over and over again. So few parents know how to cook - or are insecure about what they do know - they have no knowledge base to teach from. More, instead of giving a child some basic chore they can handle (chopping parsley, peeling garlic, washing dishes, peeling potatoes, etc.) , they chase them out of the kitchen instead. In our experience, most younger kids are eager to help - especially when the reward is a tasty dish. When an adult projects their culinary insecurities onto a child, it not only sends a terrible message, it also instills a negative message about cooking, which will be difficult - if not impossible - to overcome in later years.

EDUCATION VS. ENTERTAINMENT. As most teachers know, anytime the lesson is fun and watchable, the lesson has a far greater chance of taking root. This speaks to our overall philosophy of the one crime you can't commit onstage: Being boring. However, it has also been pointed out that our format could easily be adapted into the Holy Grail of kid's programming: Cooking/nutrition; live/interactive music; and physical fitness (i.e., dancing). We'll have to agree...

USING A COMBINATION OF PRE-PREPPED AND LIVE TECHNIQUES, here are some of the many dishes & techniques we have featured during various kid's cooking demos:

NEW ZEALAND MUSSELS WITH TARRAGON WINE SAUCE IN LINGUINI

MESCLUN SALAD MIX WITH BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

MANGO/CHICKEN QUESADILLAS

HOW TO CUT AN ONION

HOW TO MAKE AN OMELETTE

MARINARA

GUACAMOLE

Stay tuned...

Labels: kids cooking, kids cooking show, rock n kitchen jr., rock n roll chef