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Title: Feeding the Flying Fanellis and Other Poems from a Circus Chef Written by: Kate Hosford Illustrated by: Coesei Kawa Published by: Carolrhoda books 2015 Themes: food, circus, chefs, Genre: poetry Ages: 5-8 Source: review copy from the publisher Opening: In The circus Kitchen I’ve never turned a cartwheel, … Continue reading →

AdoraPet’s Pima Puppy and Pico Puppy Series  4 stars Author: YiShaun Yang Illustrators: Jeeyun Lee & Claire Cho Publisher: AdoraPet Publishing Publication Date: 2011 Number of Pages: 24 each book The AdoraPet’s Series, star Pima Puppy and Pico Puppy, two lovable characters ready to take your children on many journeys.  At a time when children’s [...]

Following a recipe is certainly a worthwhile skill but children need the freedom to experiment with tastes and to learn how to use available foods to create tasty dishes and reduce food waste.

We believe the home is the perfect environment for kids to learn about cooking. Sometimes they may follow a recipe but for young children this is very restricting and reduces the fun of trying different taste combinations, and seeing the effect of different cooking methods. Secret Seed Society promotes growing and cooking food for the very young. We have designed recipes that are highly open ended for a cooking system we call ‘Creative Cookery’.

By working with your children they become aware of the different tastes and nutritional values of a variety of foods. Creating a meal with them from fresh produce, whether home-grown or bought, stretches the household budget and learning to use what is available in that season reduces the carbon ‘food print’.

Earlier in the office Shena Cooper (our seedy founder) was telling us “Last week I was at a meeting talking to a guy whose son had grown a single runner bean. Keen to support his interest in growing the bean was carved and shared between the whole family so they could all get a taste”. Brilliant but such is ‘grow-your-own’ and this highlights one of the main problems for veg growers. The first tasty courgette savoured by the whole family is soon followed by tons of courgette and no-one can bear the sight any more. Feast or famine that is the grow-your-own way but there is always someone to share your glut with.

Secret Seed Society wants to show young gardeners how to use the single bean or the tons of courgette to make healthy and tasty food. Their recipes guide them to make their own signature dish using spices and ingredients that their culture and diet allow.

The reasoning behind ‘Creative Cookery’ is not entirely to do with availability. The greatest chefs don’t follow a recipe, they concoct, devise, and experiment. Young children are the most able to do this, their thought processes are not restricted by rights and wrongs, weights and measures and fear of getting it wrong. They are eager to try things out. In Britain today there are more types of fruit, vegetable, spices and seasonings available than ever before. No doubt there will be some inedible dishes produced and we all ‘Love Food Hate Waste‘ but children will learn from these experiences. Enjoyment of food is about taste blends, texture, combinations and cooking techniques.

The Seed City tales from Secret Seed Society familiarise children with a range of vegetable characters who have lots of exciting adventures. Reading the books, growing the seeds, which are included in each pack, and then cooking them into a tasty meal encourages them to have a positive outlook towards their 5 a day. Secret Seed Society works towards engaging children in an active and healthy life-style which will ensure they have the best chance of avoiding diabetes and heart disease in later life, sustainable living for the individual and society.

Secret Seed Society encourages every-one to have fun learning to use food that is seasonal, local and available and often home grown and cooked up by the youngest member of the household (with a bit of help of course)!

This was a piece recently done for Time Out Chicago's Eat Out section. The article was about a roundtable discussion with critics, chefs and bloggers discussing multiple issues. I was told that the chefs are now starting their own blogs in order to have a forum to respond to critics. Apparently these tend get heated, and people respond to specifics, and there's lots of trash talk and back and forth etc...

This was the final, a little mix of culinary guerilla warfare and critic-blogger droids caught up in the cyclical nature of these virtual discussions. I only had an overview of the article to work off of, but Mike Novak (TOC Art Director) did a great job of conveying what it was that they were looking for. The full article and illustration can be viewed here.

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