Kids Cooking Club
Get my actionable tips to help your kids build healthy habits
KCC Update (+ a lesson that took 40 years to learn)
Chef Mark's Tips of the Week Activities to try with your kids this week I have been busy these past few weeks building a new website! This is my 3rd go as a self-taught web designer, and it has been gratifying to see my progress since my first try in 2018. I just went back to look at my first site in search of something embarrassing to show, but I found myself feeling proud, despite seeing that my skills have greatly improved since then. This has been one of my main themes over the past 18...
Let your kid cook dinner this week 👨‍🍳
Chef Mark's Tips of the Week Activities to try with your kids this week Real learning requires curiosity and desire My 13-year-old son recently volunteered to start cooking dinner for the family once a week. As a teacher, I have been so tempted to give my own children formal lessons and transmit all of the knowledge I've accumulated in my life. But some wiser voice has led me to the strategy of exposing my kids to learning opportunities, while never forcing them to learn a specific...
Are you salting your pasta water enough?
Chef Mark's Tips of the Week Activities to try with your kids this week The Pasta Water Formula I have never used calculus in my real life. But I use percentages and fractions all the time in the kitchen. I've learned that kids truly understand and retain information when they have a real, immediate application. Here's an awesome way to teach your kid about percentages: The ideal amount of salt for pasta water is a 2% concentration. Here's my simple visual to show what that looks like. For...
The cocoa powder experiment 🍫
Chef Mark's Tips of the Week Activities to try with your kids this week From Bitter to Better! Kids hate bitter. (But not kids who get 50% of their first month of Kids Cooking Club.) And it's probably not why you think. They're not being picky. They aren't being difficult. They are actually tasting the bitterness more than we are as adults. Babies are born with an increased sensitivity to bitterness. It's a feature we developed as humans to help us avoid eating poisonous plants—most toxins...
You don't have the courage to over-salt 🧂
Chef Mark's Tips of the Week Activities to try with your kids this week "It Needs More Salt" -Chef Mark Salt makes everything taste better. This is one of the core lessons I teach my students in Kids Cooking Club. (If you haven't already checked out KCC, DO IT.) Salt is the easiest way to get your kids to eat vegetables. If you’re not already salting your food generously, you’ll likely be shocked at the amount of salt I’m recommending. I remember getting my first job in a restaurant and...
My kids called out my lazy dressing 🍋
Chef Mark's Tips of the Week Activities to try with your kids this week Sometimes It Just Takes A Few Drops This week in Kids Cooking Club, we explored how adding a little sourness makes food taste so much better! You can join easily right here. A need for sour came up twice this week in my real life. Both times, the problem was the same—and so was the solution. The problem: Not enough sour flavor. The solution: A squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice. 1. I was tired on Monday, so I skipped...
Your Kid Isn't Picky (Sweet Cancels Bitter)
Chef Mark's Tips of the Week Activities to try with your kids this week How Sweet Flavors Cancel Out Bitter Here's something that will give you more empathy for your "picky" eater: kids aren't being difficult when they reject vegetables. They're biologically more sensitive to bitter flavors than adults are. The very compounds that make vegetables healthy—especially leafy greens like kale—taste genuinely bitter to them. But here's what professional chefs know: pairing bitter flavors with...
🍅 The Original MSG
Chef Mark's Tips of the Week Activities to try with your kids this week The Original MSG What food do you think of when you hear the word "savory"? It can be a bit elusive. It's a lot easier to identify the other 4 flavors: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Even our word in English isn't very precise. Savory often simply refers to a non-sweet food option. So we borrow a more accurate word from Japanese: umami. I think of savory/umami as something that gives food more depth and satisfying...
JOIN NOW—First month 50% off! 👨‍🍳
Hi Reader, I have some amazing news to share with you today. Starting this week, we are reopening registration for new families to join our Kids Cooking Club online community for a discounted rate! Cooking builds confidence, independence, and a deep sense of responsibility. Plus, a healthy connection to food that lasts a lifetime. Kids Cooking Club is designed for children ages 5-10, and it’s where they’ll discover that they’re capable of so much more than we often give them credit for. Join...
🥦 This Hummus Changes Kids' Minds
Chef Mark's Tips of the Week Activities to try with your kids this week Homemade Hummus Changes Everything If you've only ever had store-bought hummus, your life is about to change. Homemade hummus is in a completely different category—it's creamier, brighter, and so flavorful that kids who normally won't touch vegetables happily dip carrots, cucumbers, and bell peppers. It even got me to start changing my mind about raw broccoli! Last spring, I taught a 5-week series at a local elementary...
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