Chef Junior: A Real Food Guide to Learning How to Cook—by Kids for Kids

by Anthony Spears, Abigail Langford, Paul Kimball

Kids cook too! This fun and inspiring guide to preparing real food is written by kids, for kids!
 
Cookbooks for kids often focus on bland “child-friendly” fare, but the authors of Chef Junior, five young cooks between the ages of 11 and 14, challenge that assumption. Instead, they present a repertoire of healthy, delicious, and inventive recipes that range from easy to advanced. Kids will love these dishes and drinks, including Tiramisu French Toast, Coconut Chicken Nuggets, Garden Fresh Pesto Pasta, Peach Cobbler, chocolate-y No-Bake Cookies, and Mango Lemonade, along with perennial favorites like mac ‘n’ cheese, hamburgers, pizza, and tacos. In addition, children will learn how to set up a working pantry and shop for healthy, high-quality ingredients; use kitchen tools (including knives) safely and skillfully; and create meal plans the whole family will enjoy.

Genres: Cookbooks

160 pages, Hardcover

Published May 5, 2020

About the author

Hi. I'm Anthony Spears co-author of the Chef Junior Cookbook. I enjoy reading pretty much any book I can get my hands on. Cooking is also something I've been doing from a young age, so my friends and I decided to write a cookbook. You can find me on Twitter @anthonyfspears.

Reviews

[Laura Lugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m quite impressed!!! Several months ago I checked out many children’s books from the library hoping I’d find one I’d like for us to own and I only ended with a potential option, it was “too out there” for some recipes, expensive and with comb-type binding. We don’t eat Paleo, but I even checked Paleo books hoping to find GF DF recipes what were actually healthy, and yet these forgot to offer detailed instructions that kids would certainly need.

Well, enter this book! It’s so well rounded! Recipes are healthy, there’s plenty of variety (from chicken stock to taco salad), it’s incredibly allergy friendly and steps are very detailed. They go as far as saying “wash your hands before.. because you just touched....”, “put your oven mitts and...”, etc.

I also loved how it assumes that not all kids are experienced in the kitchen, so they’ll add a little note for, say, how to crack an egg, yet at the same time it’s NOT a book about making ants on a log type of recipes: they cater to all levels, and raise the bar of what kids can do in the kitchen.

There’s so much to it. You’ll find notes from the authors like “I like to prep this at night and make it in the morning and surprise my family with breakfast in the morning”.

My thoughts are a little jumbled right now, but I had been wanting to share this with someone since I flipped through the pages today :).

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love to look at new recipes and this book had recipes that could be cooked and prepared by children. Some of the recipes are very simple for someone just learning to cook and then there are those that are moderately hard to prepare. There are also quite a few that are more advanced to use and I like the idea of showing these to my grand daughters. This book has some good recipes in it and it also has some very detailed descriptions on how to prepare the dish.

[Cherie Zondervan]

This books cover is really beautiful and grabs your attention immediately. Once you get inside the recipes are healthy but kid friendly. I love that they are labeled as easy, moderate and advanced. I also thought the description of the different kitchen appliances, what real food is, how to substitute for allergies and how to use knives properly was great! My kids are super excited to try the white chocolate hot chocolate and the mug brownies. I am looking forward to letting my kids take charge in The kitchen and feed me 🙂

[Lisa Suit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly fantastic cookbook for kids. So often cookbooks for kids are too simplistic or use lots of premade, packaged ingredients that aren't healthy. This not only uses healthy ingredients (that aren't weird, my kids will actually use and eat them!) but also explains why they are healthy. It also explains skills to use even down to meal planning! We love this book already and my kids are really excited to get in the kitchen!

[Jona Lourenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great resource of healthy easy meals that my kids can make! The scrambled eggs recipe has already been made several times. My daughter loves to read all the descriptions and information that was written by kids. It is well done and I know it will be a well used resource in our home.

[Adria Beaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great cookbook filled with dishes my kids want to cook and actually eat!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great value and beautifully done from cover to cover. The images throughout really draw you in and catch your attention, making the recipes even more inviting to the kids. As soon as it came, the kids and I flipped through it with excitement. I really appreciate the extra tips, tricks, and safety information throughout. It is laid out thoughtfully and such a wonderful way to get the kids excited for learning important life skills. There are so many great recipes it was hard to decide where to start. As a parent I am also impressed and encouraged to see how well young kids can put together something so well done. It takes a lot of the stress off of teaching the kids how and why to cook healthy food and the mental load of that skill and really allows us to enjoy our time in the kitchen together.

[Awjtf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting recipes!