Kids Can Cook Anything!

December 1, 2022

Gr 2-8-America's Test Kitchen has provided everything young chefs need to get cooking. This volume sets itself apart from many other kids' cookbooks by providing QR codes to instructional videos taught by kids themselves. These videos serve as effective introductions to essential cooking skills, like "zesting and juicing citrus." Included recipes, rated on a scale of beginner-intermediate-advanced, combine usual kid-friendly favorites with some unexpectedly complex additions: dishes like cheesy breadsticks appear alongside kale-basil pesto and avgolemono soup. The cookbook encourages effective mise en place by dividing instructions into three sections: Prepare Ingredients, Gather Cooking Equipment, and Start Cooking. Recipes include at least one photograph of the finished product, and usually incorporate fun facts about the food, a helpful tip, and testimony from a kid chef. While the book begins with a few pages of instructional materials, most tips are interspersed throughout the recipes, which may be confusing for readers. For instance, the instructional section about "Measuring Ingredients'' doesn't come until p. 188. Since most users aren't reading a cookbook front to back, they may miss some of these essential instructional sections till later. VERDICT Encouraging best cooking practices and providing audiovisual supplements to the written material ensures that kid chefs can find success. An excellent juvenile cookbook addition.

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.