Welcome to Dishing it Out, ParentDish's weekly food column. Rob Barrett is a dad who knows his way around the kitchen; his web site, Cooking For Dads, provides simple video recipes for dads (and moms!). You can read all the Dishing it Out posts here.



"Sure, I love cooking with kids," I told the TV producer. I was going to do a live cooking segment on an afternoon talk show and the producer wanted to know if I minded if the host's daughter cooked with me. I planned on having her cut up some vegetables and do some stirring. It was then I was told the little girl was only 3. Yikes! W. C. Fields was right. Never share the stage with kids or animals. It actually went OK. I had her dip fruit kabobs in chocolate, which took her approximately 30 seconds out of a 5 minute segment. (You can see a video of it on my website under Twin Cities Live - cooking with kids.)
While three-years-old is a little young, my wife and I both decided early on to include our kids in cooking. My wife didn't know how to cook at all when we got married and we didn't want to make the same mistake with our girls. But how do we encourage our kids to cook and yet keep their little fingers safe? Here are some things we've learned doing a kids night on our summer vacation.

There are many tasks to do in the kitchen that don't include imminent danger. Our daughters loved to sit on the countertop and stir the pasta or whatever we were cooking; they were great at mixing ingredients with a spoon; they could put the peanut butter and the raisins in the celery; and they could make cookies or bread or any kind of baking preparation.

We didn't let our kids use sharp knives until they were in second grade. Then we found ourselves learning the right way to cut so that we could teach our kids. There are lots of great videos teaching knife skills but basically you want to curve your fingers into a claw to keep the tips safe. We also started with easy things to cut like tomatoes and onions. Remember, a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one. You never know when it might jerk through what you're cutting and end your career as a concert pianist.

The biggest advantage of having kids help in the kitchen is that they are much less likely to complain about food they've helped make. I'm amazed at what my kids will eat if they help make it. And it's fun. I get lots of emails from boys around the country who watch my show and really enjoy trying out the recipes. They just need the opportunity.