Nutrition is a fundamental part of our lives, for us adults, but especially for children. How many times have you faced real challenges in the kitchen to satisfy your children's palates?
At a restaurant, at home or during a trip, your children have suddenly started to refuse a food that is perhaps familiar to them or to become interested in something they have never tried before. Children are unpredictable, like their taste buds.
Sometimes you really need strong nerves! Between work and family commitments, it is not easy to help your children understand the importance of following a balanced diet and the pleasure of welcome new tastes and recipes. It is also not easy for us to maintain a healthy and varied diet and have the inspiration to create healthy and tasty dishes.
How to do it then? No fear! The Lo Stivaletto cooking workshops begin in October! For children of all ages, from one year up to nine.
During our meetings, both parents and children will learn the secrets of a balanced diet, through the sharing of healthy and tasty recipes, games related to nutrition, useful advice and obviously thanks to the preparation of delicious dishes all together.
Knowledge of the products and their seasonality
Our children do not yet fully know the magical properties of foods and it is up to parents to help them better understand the reasons why it is important to have a healthy and varied diet. The Stivaletto cooking lessons are designed to help you do just this.
Preparing tasty and easy recipes for them to make in autonomy (or almost!) it will be a stimulus to knowledge and experimentation with new foods and flavors previously unknown. With the combination of games that stimulate cognitive functions and the five senses, knowledge of seasonality of foods and the properties of 0 km products, the little chefs will also learn to master their diet in a healthy and balanced way.
Because this is what it's really about: through their food choices, children have the opportunity to exercise their autonomy, which is fundamental for their approach to food to be open and positive.
Knowing the benefits of a healthy diet helps reduce drama at the table: children will be able to understand for themselves which foods are best for them and really help you make mealtime a time dedicated to creativity and culinary curiosity.
What you learn during an “In the kitchen” meeting
Therefore, during the lessons the children will not only deal with the art of manual work. Above all, they will understand the importance of teamwork, listening and being listened to. They will get to know new cultures and acquire an important respect for the products that nature offers us every day.
The gaming, experimentation and food preparation activities will be an opportunity to gain greater confidence and build a more balanced relationship with food.
And so, preparing biscuits with rosemary and the scent of hazelnuts, discovering legumes and grasses, jumping with enthusiasm between the robust spelled salads and the colorful ones with borlotti beans, they will be enchanted by the magical and extraordinary beauty of everything we eat and of good cuisine.
Who leads the little chefs
In order to feel at ease with new and different tastes, you need a competent person who you can trust and with whom you can have fun at the same time. And Jasmine is right here for it.
We told you about her about Camp Estivaletto, but we want to tell you something more. Young and passionate, Jasmine is an educator and a chef, specializing in children's nutrition. She trained at the culinary academy in the Piedmontese Langhe which was followed by several experiences abroad. In 2017 she started working in London at private cookery schools and after-school clubs and two years later she moved to Amsterdam where, among other things, she leads courses, produces delicacies and writes about cooking and nutrition.
What transpires through his lessons is the desire to help children integrate into the kitchen environment and feel completely at ease with food. She tries to teach them to communicate with their body, to listen to its signals and needs, building a close, frank and collaborative relationship with them.
Tips for eating well and happily together
While waiting to cook with you, we offer you some ideas to encourage your little ones to try and appreciate different recipes and flavours.
To share the pleasure of ethnic cuisine and new flavours, try organizing a themed evening: for a Mexican dinner, why not?!, you can play typical music at full volume and prepare "Dia de los muertos" masks, festoons and tacos with your little ones. Teaching them something about another culture helps them and encourages them to try different dishes and gives yourself the opportunity to rediscover new flavors from the wonderful multi-ethnic world that surrounds us. The preparation will then be an opportunity to spend real quality time with them.
To entice them, try every now and then to satisfy some of your children's more particular requests: if for once they ask you to eat only sweets for dinner or to mix foods in an 'unconventional' way, don't get caught up in anxiety or stereotypes. of being a bad parent. With your trust they will feel more responsible and will learn to recognize the limits of their requests more easily.
And if you like the idea, enroll your children in the 'In the kitchen' workshops, you won't regret it! The courses are already available on our website in page 'courses and camps’ divided into age groups: 1-3 years, 4-6 years, 7-9 years.
If you have already done so, it's time to relax thinking about the many new and beautiful evenings that await you at the table with them!
❤️ We hope to see you soon, small and large chefs, in the kitchen with us.
The Stivaletto team