Those TV cooking shows may be inspiring a new generation of Kiwi chefs. By Gill South.
Those kids with the strong Australian accents on Junior MasterChef have a lot to answer for in my house. It's made my boys cooking mad. They rave about the mini-chefs on this show - Pierre is a favourite - and can tell you how many points Sofia is ahead of all the others.
"She's good at EVERYTHING," they say in awe.
I mean, who are these wunderkinds? They know what to do with duck, for heaven's sake.
But I'm not really complaining. If this is the trigger for my kids, at 9 and 10, to starting proper cooking, that's great. It is my fervent hope that they'll be whipping up a meal a night a week each by the time they hit high school. And the weekend is the ideal time to start preparing the groundwork for this.
My boys are finally at the age where they want to cook something which doesn't necessarily involve chocolate. My 10-year-old, Fintan, made sushi last Sunday with his dad who does the cooking on the weekends. It tasted like the sushi you get at the shop. My 9-year-old, Malachy, likes to make pikelets for afternoon tea or after football - he uses the recipe from the good old Edmonds Cookery Book.
Felicity O'Driscoll, co-owner of Cook the Books in Ponsonby Rd, says interest in children's cooking has sky-rocketed in the past couple of years. Programmes like MasterChef New Zealand have contributed too, she says.
"All these programmes have just made kids more aware of food," says O'Driscoll.
"Children will come into the shop looking for cookbooks for themselves, or their parents or grandparents, heartened by their children's interest, will buy them as presents. Mothers tend to be looking for books with some reasonably healthy recipes."
And grandparents will succumb to ones for cupcakes because they know it will win them hugs.
The real stand-out children's book best-seller last year was It's My Turn To Cook by Wellingtonian Margaret Brooker, which won the Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards best children's cookbook. Targeted at 10-year-olds upwards, it gives them 40 recipes to try, plus excellent cooking tips.
Thirteen year old Simon Bonney, a Western Springs student who cooks most weekends for the family, is a fan of Jamie Oliver' and cooks a lot from Oliver's 30 Minute Meals.
"I like his style. He goes around the world teaching people to cook so they won't be obese," says the teen.
Bonney watches Junior MasterChef, MasterChef New Zealand, NZ's Hottest Home Baker and others. His favourite dishes are roasts and curries, he says.
Why is he so into it?
"Everyone loves the person who can cook," his mother has told him.
Bonney's mother, Alison, says these days Simon tells her off when she is making roast chicken without any extra garnishes. Alison, who is a caterer, says he got his interest in cooking from her.
"He has a really good palette," she says. Her 10-year-old daughter Auriol also cooks but concentrates on baking.
Jane Shaw is a self-confessed foodie who runs the Provisions of Central Otago gourmet food business and Arrowtown cafe with her business partner Pauline Murphy.
She encouraged her children, Angus, 16 and Harriet, 14, to cook when they were small. Jane and Harriet will sometimes make pizza together on the weekends when she is home from boarding school.
With Angus starting to think about university in a year, he knows being able to cook will stand him in good stead in student flats.
"Cooking is a good life skill," he says.
"I'm trying to encourage him to have a repertoire of five dishes," says Jane. Pasta has been his forte so far.
"I do a vegetarian carbonara and I only eat and cook with free-range ingredients," he says proudly.
A few of his friends cook but only if their parents are into it too, he says. His father Hal, is the casserole, soup and gravy-maker of the family, says Jane.
A financial incentive can help turn teens on to spending more time in the kitchen. Harriet Shaw, Jane's daughter, has turned her talent for baking into a money-making enterprise. She makes iced cookies for her mother's cafe, selling the cellophane-wrapped biscuits for $3. Her biscuits were also requested by a conference incentives company and she made a small fortune from that.
The Kiwi Kitchen TV chef, Richard Till puts his three kids' interest in cooking down to them being immersed in it early.
"They are remarkably good cooks which has come about through having been marinated in an environment where cooking was done enthusiastically," says Till.
"We always sat down as a family for meals."
When his children were young, the-then restaurateur would set them tasks in the restaurant after school. He would give them a task such as beating 10 litres of cream or making the creme brulees for the evening.
His advice is to get the kids to cook dishes that they like and to cook them over again.
"It is good for any cook," he says.
The results can be highly gratifying. His 26-year-old daughter, Elsie, has now turned into a hostess extraordinaire, holding regular dinner parties.
The fact her mother, grandmother and great grandmothers were all enthusiastic bakers has had its effect on her, says Till.
His 21-year-old son Francis impresses him with his fantastic eating habits. When shopping his basket will include a bag of almonds and dry lentils.
"He eats really really good food and cooks it from scratch," says Till proudly.
Good cook books for children
* The Silver Spoon For Children, Phaidon.
* It's My Turn To Cook, Margaret Brooker.
* Edmonds Junior Cook Book, Mary Pat Fergus plus Junior Cook 2, Red.
* Anyone can Cook, Anyone can Bake, Annabel Langbein.
* Glenda Gourley's website.
