UNITED STATES, January 17, 2011, (by Kim Painter): Many teens and young adults are clueless in the kitchen. ‘A lot of them grew up in really busy households, with people relying on frozen and fast foods and not doing a lot of cooking,’ says Maris Callahan, 26, a writer whose website, www.ingoodtasteblog.net , features recipes for novices. Too many otherwise well-educated young people end up like many of her friends, she says, with refrigerators ‘that are empty except for some beer and takeout leftovers.’
It doesn’t have to be that way. If you are the parent of a teen or a young adult living at home, you still have time to pass on one of life’s most useful and rewarding skills. Teaching your kids to cook is like teaching them to balance a checkbook or keep enough gas in the car, says Sandy Smith, a food writer and pastry chef in Saugerties, N.Y. ‘It’s a survival skill.’
It’s a basic health tool, too, says Ed Bruske, a personal chef, kids’ cooking teacher and food activist (blogging at theslowcook.com) in Washington, D.C. ‘When you cook, you learn about real food’ that doesn’t come in a box or through a take-out window, he says. ‘Anything you cook is bound to be healthier.’
Kids who leave home as cooks also will save money, especially if they’ve also learned to shop for groceries and stick to a budget, says Elizabeth Pivonka, president of the Produce for Better Health Foundation.