“Holidays are a great time to go to the markets with children and start handling products together”

You may be wondering how to get your children to eat better? What if you took advantage of the school holidays to introduce them to good products and the first steps in the kitchen.

How to teach children to eat better? More and more school canteens are working in this direction, sometimes with star chefs like Vivien Durand, in Bordeaux, or Christophe Hay, on the banks of the Loire. But why not adopt good habits at home too? For more than 10 years, the association Les enfants cuisinent has supported parents and their children in learning taste, products, and the first gestures in the kitchen.

Its founder, chef Olivier Chaput, notes that things are moving in the right direction: “The younger generations especially, between 6 and 8 years old, are starting to be well sharpened, the children talk about the seasons or products they find near them. The holidays are a special time to go to the markets with them and start to handle the products together.”

Workshops in school or at events

Olivier Chaput’s association therefore organizes workshops in schools or during events welcoming children. Each time, it is about instilling good eating habits, always associating the notion of pleasure.

“A child, by definition, is curiousexplains the one we call ‘the children’s favorite chef’. Above all, we must not curb this curiosity, but support it, by having people taste as many things as possible and by cooking together. It’s not about making him a chef, but about telling him ‘you can prepare the dough, at your age, but I’m the one who takes care of the oven’. From the age of 2, as soon as motor skills are in place, we must introduce him to this curiosity which will encourage his imagination.”

Olivier Chaput will be present next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at the Agricultural Show in Paris. And already note, at the beginning of June, the gastronomy and food festival, dedicated to children, which is simply called “Bon” and which Olivier Chaput organizes each year near Albi.