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Kid in the Kitchen: 100 Recipes and Tips for Young Home Cooks: A Cookbook
The New York Times Food columnist and beloved home cooking authority welcomes the next generation of chefs into the kitchen with 100 recipes that are all about what YOU think is good.
Whether you're new to cooking or you already rock that kitchen, these 100 recipes make it easy to cook what you like, exactly how you like it.
In Kid in the Kitchen, Melissa Clark, who has been cooking with her own kid for years, takes you step-by-step through how to understand and create each dish. These recipes are fun, insanely delicious, and will help you become a confident cook. There are tons of tips and tweaks, too, so you can cook what you want with what you have. Make amped-up breakfasts, sandwiches that slay, noodles and pasta for every craving, plus sheet pan dinners, mix and match grain bowls and salads, one-pot meals, party classics, and the richest, gooiest desserts. This is the fun, easy way to awesome food.
Recipes include: Fresh Custardy French Toast - OMG, I Smell Bacon! (spicy and candied, too) - Granola Bar Remix, feat. Cranberry and Ginger - The. Last. Guacamole. Recipe. Ever. - Fast Pho - Garlicky, Crumb-y Pasta - Classic Caesar Salad with Unclassic Cheesy Croutons - Crispy Pork Carnitas Tacos - Mexican Chicken Soup & Chips - Shrimp Scampi Skillet Dinner - Korean Scallion and Veggie Pancakes (Pajeon) - Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Put a Spell on You - Rise & Dine Cinnamon Raisin Bread - Buttery Mashed Potato Cloud - Deep Dark Fudgy Brownies - Think Pink Lemonade Bars
Melissa will explain the most helpful kitchen tools and tips, from the proper way to hold a chef's knife to why you need a Microplane grater right now. She'll even clue you in on which recipe rules you can break and how to snap amazing food photos to share!
Whether you're new to cooking or you already rock that kitchen, these 100 recipes make it easy to cook what you like, exactly how you like it.
In Kid in the Kitchen, Melissa Clark, who has been cooking with her own kid for years, takes you step-by-step through how to understand and create each dish. These recipes are fun, insanely delicious, and will help you become a confident cook. There are tons of tips and tweaks, too, so you can cook what you want with what you have. Make amped-up breakfasts, sandwiches that slay, noodles and pasta for every craving, plus sheet pan dinners, mix and match grain bowls and salads, one-pot meals, party classics, and the richest, gooiest desserts. This is the fun, easy way to awesome food.
Recipes include: Fresh Custardy French Toast - OMG, I Smell Bacon! (spicy and candied, too) - Granola Bar Remix, feat. Cranberry and Ginger - The. Last. Guacamole. Recipe. Ever. - Fast Pho - Garlicky, Crumb-y Pasta - Classic Caesar Salad with Unclassic Cheesy Croutons - Crispy Pork Carnitas Tacos - Mexican Chicken Soup & Chips - Shrimp Scampi Skillet Dinner - Korean Scallion and Veggie Pancakes (Pajeon) - Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Put a Spell on You - Rise & Dine Cinnamon Raisin Bread - Buttery Mashed Potato Cloud - Deep Dark Fudgy Brownies - Think Pink Lemonade Bars
Melissa will explain the most helpful kitchen tools and tips, from the proper way to hold a chef's knife to why you need a Microplane grater right now. She'll even clue you in on which recipe rules you can break and how to snap amazing food photos to share!
288 pages, Hardcover
First published November 10, 2020
22 people are currently reading
182 people want to read
About the author
Melissa Clark
82 books133 followersMelissa Clark is an American food writer and cookbook author. Since 2007, she has been a food columnist for The New York Times. She has written more than 40 cookbooks and in 2018 won a James Beard Award.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 30, 2025
Every cookbook promises to be the last cookbook you will ever need, but this cookbook legitimately is. It actually teaches you *how* to cook, and it doesn’t assume you have some secret culinary skills or a pantry stocked with exotic ingredients. It’s targeted for kids (probably middle school age), but that doesn’t mean it’s a book of pancakes shaped like dogs or something. It’s full of simple, easy to follow instructions for recipes you actually want to make, and gives tips at the end of the recipe for how to tweak it to fit your taste! For example, the Dutch Baby recipe gives instructions to make it savory or sweet, recommendations for toppings, and even tips to take the most instagramable photo of it.
My favorite part is that it gives you a foundation for cooking the food you want, when you want it. It tells you how to use a knife! How to prep an onion! How to cook eggs different ways! What to do with a whole chicken! What basic kitchen tools you need! What kitchen terms mean! My mom, an excellent and intuitive home cook, uses the recipes in this book because they actually sound good and turn out. My ten year old sister uses the recipes in this book because they sound good and turn out! My family has given this cookbook as three wedding gifts so far, and we aren’t stopping there. I actually can’t hype this cookbook up enough, so you just gotta buy it. I am a more confident cook because of it.
My favorite part is that it gives you a foundation for cooking the food you want, when you want it. It tells you how to use a knife! How to prep an onion! How to cook eggs different ways! What to do with a whole chicken! What basic kitchen tools you need! What kitchen terms mean! My mom, an excellent and intuitive home cook, uses the recipes in this book because they actually sound good and turn out. My ten year old sister uses the recipes in this book because they sound good and turn out! My family has given this cookbook as three wedding gifts so far, and we aren’t stopping there. I actually can’t hype this cookbook up enough, so you just gotta buy it. I am a more confident cook because of it.
April 30, 2021
My 10 year old daughter loves it and gives it 5/5 stars. I give it 4/5 stars a lot of specialized ingredients. Full review below.
..
My youngest daughter at the age of 10 loves cooking and cooking shows. She saved up her own money and purchased herself two cookbooks, this one and The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs from America's Test Kitchen. This was the first to arrive and she loves it. She carried it around the house for days, put in sticky note tabs for recipes she wanted to try. But more on that later.
This is a beautiful cookbook. Full color glossy pages. Heavy weight paper. Solid binding. And very well designed and made. It is a great book to flip through and get ideas from. Or to plan whole meals. The chapters in the volume are:
Breakfast & Brunch
Sandwiches
Snack Like You Mean It
Noodles & Pasta
Sheet Pan Fever
Extreme Bowling:
Grain Bowls & Salads
Food Parties for the Fun Food Fans
One-Pot Meals
Breads
Sides
Sugar Time!
Prior to the chapters on specific foods there are 5 short sections to get you started. They are:
Hi! (An introduction)
How to Cook Any Recipe
The 20 (or So) Tools to Cook Almost Anything
Insta Your Dishes: Food photography Hacks and Tips
Kitchen Decoded
My daughter picked 5 dishes she wanted to prepare and made the family brunch. We had to purchase several ingredients we did not have in house. That first foray she made:
Brown Sugar Bacon
Siracha Glazed Bacon
Mustard Glazed Bacon
BLT on Artisan Bread (with bacon from above and avocado.)
Scrambled Eggs
And French Toast
It was a smash hit. The bacon and bacon sandwich she made for me blew me away. At 10 she still needs significant help in the kitchen but is a quick learner, and eager apprentice.
She loves this book and give it a solid 5/5 stars. And I am certain we will have many other meals prepared from this volume over the weeks and months to come.
An excellent cookbook for younger aspiring chefs. A great place to start. Melissa has contributed to or written over 50 books related to food. And this one is a good one for working with younger children, or letting older children experiment on their own.
Note: I have since bought 3 other copies, one for my daughters best friend. And 2 for different sets of cousins.
..
My youngest daughter at the age of 10 loves cooking and cooking shows. She saved up her own money and purchased herself two cookbooks, this one and The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs from America's Test Kitchen. This was the first to arrive and she loves it. She carried it around the house for days, put in sticky note tabs for recipes she wanted to try. But more on that later.
This is a beautiful cookbook. Full color glossy pages. Heavy weight paper. Solid binding. And very well designed and made. It is a great book to flip through and get ideas from. Or to plan whole meals. The chapters in the volume are:
Breakfast & Brunch
Sandwiches
Snack Like You Mean It
Noodles & Pasta
Sheet Pan Fever
Extreme Bowling:
Grain Bowls & Salads
Food Parties for the Fun Food Fans
One-Pot Meals
Breads
Sides
Sugar Time!
Prior to the chapters on specific foods there are 5 short sections to get you started. They are:
Hi! (An introduction)
How to Cook Any Recipe
The 20 (or So) Tools to Cook Almost Anything
Insta Your Dishes: Food photography Hacks and Tips
Kitchen Decoded
My daughter picked 5 dishes she wanted to prepare and made the family brunch. We had to purchase several ingredients we did not have in house. That first foray she made:
Brown Sugar Bacon
Siracha Glazed Bacon
Mustard Glazed Bacon
BLT on Artisan Bread (with bacon from above and avocado.)
Scrambled Eggs
And French Toast
It was a smash hit. The bacon and bacon sandwich she made for me blew me away. At 10 she still needs significant help in the kitchen but is a quick learner, and eager apprentice.
She loves this book and give it a solid 5/5 stars. And I am certain we will have many other meals prepared from this volume over the weeks and months to come.
An excellent cookbook for younger aspiring chefs. A great place to start. Melissa has contributed to or written over 50 books related to food. And this one is a good one for working with younger children, or letting older children experiment on their own.
Note: I have since bought 3 other copies, one for my daughters best friend. And 2 for different sets of cousins.
April 28, 2021
There is no one way to approach cooking or baking with kids. Being in the kitchen with my daughter reminds me of when I used to be a primary school teacher -- there were certain hands-on activities that would make me feel anxious because of the potential for mess. Part of what makes hands-on science or art activities successful is how you establish routines (how equipment or supplies are handled) and, how well the children understand the steps and instructions. Once the class was prepared then I set them free to complete their project. Even though each child had the same instructions and materials, each would work on their own project -- taking enjoyment in the act of creation. While some students felt more comfortable with mimicking the example/model, some students would create something all their own -- the activities, never about perfection, rather, it was about enjoyment and expressing their sense of self.
Maybe this is why I appreciate Melissa Clark's approach in her latest cookbook Kid in the Kitchen. In the introduction she tells the home cooks that "You have to learn some basics to get going. Every dish has a few fundamental steps that will make it work. In this book, I take you step-by-step through the process of understanding and making a recipe. You'll find a set of rock-solid starting points that will help you cook exactly what you want to eat."(9) After trying several of the recipes with my daughter I could see how much she enjoyed the process (as well as the product). Since she is 6 years old, we worked on making the recipes together, but this cookbook would be great for home cooks of any age. Unlike some kid-focused cookbooks that can be a be twee or cutesy, I found Kid in the Kitchen to appealed to me because it avoided being cutesy. The recipes provide an excellent base from which the home cooks can experiment with -- understanding what ingredients could be added or subtracted.
The recipes are organized into 11 chapters: Breakfast & Brunch, Sandwiches, Snack Like You Mean It, Noodles & Pasta, Sheet Pan Fever, Extreme Bowling: Grain Bowls & Salads, Food Parties for Fun Food Fans, One-Pot Meals, Breads, Sides, and Sugar Time! At the beginning of the book, Clark outlines techniques as well as crucial kitchen tools. There is even a section on food styling and photographing -- how to show off the beautiful dishes that you make. Each kid is different and, what I've found with my daughter is that she's more likely to eat the food she helps to prepare.
After looking through the book together, the first recipe that we decided to make was the Hot Honey Butter Popovers. This was an easy recipe to make because after mixing the batter all the work is done in the oven (unlike pancakes you need to flip). My daughter and I got the ingredients ready, then we used an immersion blender to blend the mixture smoothly. She buttered the pan and I helped her to pour the batter into each popover cup. The magic happens as the batter cooks -- it slowly creeps up the sides of the cup until it's popping out of the pan (think: Dutch Baby pancake). She gave a triumphant jump as we watched her popovers bake. She also made the honey butter by mixing up the ingredients -- this compound butter is the perfect accompaniment to the warm popovers. We also found it was delicious when slathered on the Crispy Skillet Cornbread.
One of our favourite meals is nachos (I like it because it's an easy meal to throw together). So, when we saw the recipe for Cheesy Skillet Black Beans we wanted to make it immediately because it seems like a nacho-adjacent recipe -- black beans, salsa, melted cheese -- all the nacho ingredients we love. While you could serve this recipe with corn tortilla chips, we served it on rice (used the Master Rice Recipe to make it) with a side of the Crispy Skillet Cornbread. I really appreciate this recipe because it's a one-pot meal that we can make quickly using just a few pantry ingredients. While my child and I started off making this meal together, she took a break half-way through to draw (which sometimes happens with my young cook).
Going back to the Master Rice Recipe, I like how Melissa Clark provides instruction on how to make rice using different methods. Since I use the Instant Pot to make my rice, we went through the instructions and made rice using Clark's method. My daughter was able to rinse/drain the rice and then add all the ingredients to the pot. I helped to secure the lid and she pressed the buttons. Ask my family and they'll tell you that I make inconsistent (sometimes awful rice). Using the Instant Pot I've found that my results have improved (I use the instructions provided with the pot) however, I think that the method here of rinsing the rice makes a huge difference to the final product. In this respect, I think that even adult home cooks can learn something from this cookbook!
What Melissa Clark's Kid in the Kitchen offers is an excellent primer for young home cooks and, with the holidays approaching, I think that this cookbook would make an excellent gift (I would also recommend adding a popover pan too). The ability to cook offers essential life skills to kids so that they can make food they'll enjoy, while helping to expand their palates.
Please note that this is an excerpt of a review posted to www.shipshapeatworthy.wordpress.com
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Penguin Random House Canada / Clarkson Potter Publishers for providing me with a free, review copy of this book. I did not receive monetary compensation for my post, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
Maybe this is why I appreciate Melissa Clark's approach in her latest cookbook Kid in the Kitchen. In the introduction she tells the home cooks that "You have to learn some basics to get going. Every dish has a few fundamental steps that will make it work. In this book, I take you step-by-step through the process of understanding and making a recipe. You'll find a set of rock-solid starting points that will help you cook exactly what you want to eat."(9) After trying several of the recipes with my daughter I could see how much she enjoyed the process (as well as the product). Since she is 6 years old, we worked on making the recipes together, but this cookbook would be great for home cooks of any age. Unlike some kid-focused cookbooks that can be a be twee or cutesy, I found Kid in the Kitchen to appealed to me because it avoided being cutesy. The recipes provide an excellent base from which the home cooks can experiment with -- understanding what ingredients could be added or subtracted.
The recipes are organized into 11 chapters: Breakfast & Brunch, Sandwiches, Snack Like You Mean It, Noodles & Pasta, Sheet Pan Fever, Extreme Bowling: Grain Bowls & Salads, Food Parties for Fun Food Fans, One-Pot Meals, Breads, Sides, and Sugar Time! At the beginning of the book, Clark outlines techniques as well as crucial kitchen tools. There is even a section on food styling and photographing -- how to show off the beautiful dishes that you make. Each kid is different and, what I've found with my daughter is that she's more likely to eat the food she helps to prepare.
After looking through the book together, the first recipe that we decided to make was the Hot Honey Butter Popovers. This was an easy recipe to make because after mixing the batter all the work is done in the oven (unlike pancakes you need to flip). My daughter and I got the ingredients ready, then we used an immersion blender to blend the mixture smoothly. She buttered the pan and I helped her to pour the batter into each popover cup. The magic happens as the batter cooks -- it slowly creeps up the sides of the cup until it's popping out of the pan (think: Dutch Baby pancake). She gave a triumphant jump as we watched her popovers bake. She also made the honey butter by mixing up the ingredients -- this compound butter is the perfect accompaniment to the warm popovers. We also found it was delicious when slathered on the Crispy Skillet Cornbread.
One of our favourite meals is nachos (I like it because it's an easy meal to throw together). So, when we saw the recipe for Cheesy Skillet Black Beans we wanted to make it immediately because it seems like a nacho-adjacent recipe -- black beans, salsa, melted cheese -- all the nacho ingredients we love. While you could serve this recipe with corn tortilla chips, we served it on rice (used the Master Rice Recipe to make it) with a side of the Crispy Skillet Cornbread. I really appreciate this recipe because it's a one-pot meal that we can make quickly using just a few pantry ingredients. While my child and I started off making this meal together, she took a break half-way through to draw (which sometimes happens with my young cook).
Going back to the Master Rice Recipe, I like how Melissa Clark provides instruction on how to make rice using different methods. Since I use the Instant Pot to make my rice, we went through the instructions and made rice using Clark's method. My daughter was able to rinse/drain the rice and then add all the ingredients to the pot. I helped to secure the lid and she pressed the buttons. Ask my family and they'll tell you that I make inconsistent (sometimes awful rice). Using the Instant Pot I've found that my results have improved (I use the instructions provided with the pot) however, I think that the method here of rinsing the rice makes a huge difference to the final product. In this respect, I think that even adult home cooks can learn something from this cookbook!
What Melissa Clark's Kid in the Kitchen offers is an excellent primer for young home cooks and, with the holidays approaching, I think that this cookbook would make an excellent gift (I would also recommend adding a popover pan too). The ability to cook offers essential life skills to kids so that they can make food they'll enjoy, while helping to expand their palates.
Please note that this is an excerpt of a review posted to www.shipshapeatworthy.wordpress.com
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Penguin Random House Canada / Clarkson Potter Publishers for providing me with a free, review copy of this book. I did not receive monetary compensation for my post, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
October 2, 2021
So reasonable! This doesn’t need to be only for parents. Kid talk is actually minimal. Anyone who wants achievable weeknight meals might like this one.
October 3, 2021
A cookbook that’s very accessible, great tips for techniques and procedures (ie how to step through a recipe or prepare a food party), and lots of variety in the recipes. Best for teens or anyone older who is relatively new to cooking. The word “kid” in the title may turn off the teens it’s most suited for. Should have been Teen in the Kitchen. The alliteration is not as good but much more accurate.
March 5, 2021
This is a fun book for children ages 8-12 who like to cook or are interested in learning how. The recipes are easy to follow, the ingredients are simple and the illustrations are colorful and on target. there are 100 recipes divided into chapters for main meals, deserts, etc. A good addition to a young cook's library. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
October 22, 2022
Recipes to inspire my 15-year old cook! Lots of basics info included, as well. The only “complaint” is that some ingredients most people wouldn’t have on hand. But overall? A great cookbook for honestly any age!
January 18, 2024
Good for young chefs who want to try more complicated recipes. These recipes are definitely older-kid type for the skills or for a younger kid who REALLY likes to cook. Otherwise, I think the recipes might be too difficult for most youngsters.
January 22, 2021
Checked this out for Rory and she's made 6 recipes in the week we've had it from the library including two dinners. Approachable and appealing for kids especially in the 8-12 age range.
January 26, 2021
i really loved this book. It had a lot of different recipes and different things to try. As someone who isn't that good at cooking, the steps and recipes were easy to follow.
January 26, 2023
A little advanced for my 7 year old, but he loves the pictures and reading the tips and tricks. I see this becoming one of his first kitchen bibles.
May 4, 2023
Elevated-kid-friendly recipes.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews