Hi Cara,

You are so talking my language. I'm the father of 4 little girls and getting them into the kitchen and comfortable has been my personal mission.

My own experience has been that as my skill as a home cook improved through The Rouxbe Cooking School, then my confidence went up and I was able to pass on good information to my girls.

My oldest daughter started beside me washing mushrooms at age two.

By the time she was four I had a salad knife in her hand as she watched the knife skill lessons on Rouxbe and perfected this skill.

At five I gave her a 6" Kasumi chef's knife. Not the usual gift a parent would give their child and my wife was sitting in the corner with band-aides and a phone with 911 on speed dial ready.

My daughter is now seven and has still never so much as nicked a nail let alone cut herself because she learned how to use a knife  the right way first.

How many of us can say that?

We all had to break bad habits, myself included as she now cuts better than I did at forty a few years back.

Here are some photo's of her, cutting, making pancakes from scratch and making a vinaigrette on her own.
 

         


To me giving the parents the confidence to be able to teach their kids and not worry about hot stoves or sharp knives is the key and I think that's why most parents don't teach their kids.

They don't want to hurt their kids but in the long run denying them this incredible life sustaining life-skill of cooking is worse.

This is how the freezer food generation of reheating was begun and sustains itself.

Also, it's so much cheaper to cook from scratch then it is to buy ready made and the 30 to 40 minutes a night we spend is worth it to get everyone around the table together to eat a healthy meal.

Our girls have countless after school activities that have my wife or I committed to being van jockeys for them all over town but we now manage to make a healthy dinner every night.

I really look forward to helping you get parents and their kids into the kitchen.

All the best,

Steve Ellis