As promised in a previous post, here are some real recipes for kids. Not a better resource than Lerner Books’ series of Easy Menu Ethnic Cooking. With over 30 titles representing countries all over the world, Lerner provides systematic, lively cooking challenges for responsible young chefs. Featured on the San Francisco Public Library Asian Heritage list, these small-format books offer good illustrations, manageable recipes and an appealing format.
The World Cookbook for Students, another great resource, targets U.S. students in schools where preparing an international dish is a regular assignment. Bobbie Kalman’s Multicultural Meals presents simple vegetarian recipes appropriate for elementary school kids to prepare (with supervision), including curry, pita toppers, greek salad, spinach quiche (with a prepared pie crust), and Thai coconut soup and noodles. Matthew Locriccio’s International Cookbook for Kids has a simple “On your Mark, Get Set, Cook!” format suitable for the somewhat experienced middle schooler. Mollie Katzen, well-known chef for grownups, has two vegetarian cookbooks, Pretend Soup And Other Real Recipes (with educator Ann Henderson) and Salad People and More Real Recipes. Both offer young cooking enthusiasts experience with counting, measuring, and other culinary skills and include advice for supervising adults as well.
Hope these books will inspire the kids in your life to cook up a real multicultural meal!
The Born to Read program in Maine offers a list of children’s books called “Traditions in the Melting Pot.” You can download it at http://mainehumanities.org/programs/btr-manyeyesresources.html (it’s the second in the list). Enjoy!
A wonderful list… thanks so much, Brita, both for the list and for all the work you’re doing for kids’ reading (and eating!) in Maine!