The five dishes kids should master at every age

Are children’s cooking skills evaporating? Nutrition experts think so. Recipes are no longer passed down the generations like they once were, as time-poor households cook less from scratch and increasingly rely on convenience foods. And as cooking lessons in schools decline, experts say many children miss out on basic culinary knowledge. So, what dishes should they have under their belts at different ages?

“Children are becoming de-skilled when it comes to cooking, and they’re missing out,” agrees Lucy Upton, a paediatric dietitian. “Cooking fosters important life skills, creativity and self-esteem. And data shows it leads to healthier food choices later in life.” Parents shouldn’t feel guilty if their kids aren’t junior Masterchefs, though. “Both parents might work, a single parent may be working more than one job, and all households are busy, so the priority is getting food on the table,” she says.

The thing is, children are more capable in the kitchen than we often think, says Liz Hagger, head chef at Flavours School of Cookery in Bournemouth, which runs classes and clubs for children of all ages, as well as adults. “And there’s no reason why they can’t start young.”

Under 5s

Hagger put her own son, now aged seven, in a baby seat on the kitchen worktop when he was tiny so he could “help” her make dinner. “He could watch what I was doing, taste things and play with different ingredients,” she says.

Under-5s can also help wash fruit and vegetables, chop soft ingredients with a child-safe knife, place food in bowls and even stir a pot under supervision, Hagger says. Exposure to food and cooking, even at basic level, is key.

Rachel Khoo, food writer, broadcaster and author of Les Petits Pleasures on Substack, credits “two remarkable mentors” – her mother and Austrian grandmother – with influencing her culinary success. “Their enduring lesson of clever, budget-conscious cooking transformed our hands-on childhood experiences of chopping, stirring, and baking into a foundation that continues to serve me well today,” she explains.

Now, she involves her own children – aged eight, five and two – in “weekend cooking adventures” like making healthy blueberry muffins. Even her youngest joins in. “They all want to get involved, which sometimes leads to a fight over who gets to stir,” Khoo says.

Ages 5 to 7

“At this stage children can really get involved in stirring, mixing, grating and chopping,” explains Upton. They can also weigh and measure ingredients.

What recipes could they master? “Something simple with minimum ingredients, like a frittata, as they can help mix eggs, grate cheese and chop vegetables,” Upton suggests. “Simple baking, like biscuits with a few ingredients, energy balls, or chopping fruit for a smoothie would be good, too.”

Chris Leach, chef and co-founder of Manteca in London, is passionate about cooking with his two children, aged six and three. He wants them to learn how to avoid ultra-processed foods wherever possible, and the importance of letting nothing go to waste.

“If I’m making something with an egg, they’ll always help me crack it, even my three-year-old, and they really love mixing things,” he says. Fresh pasta is a winner – they can crack eggs, mix with their hands, cut shapes and help feed dough through the pasta machine. And they already know how to make stock from a chicken carcass. “I want them to understand how to get value out of food, and to be able to make a meal out of what they’ve got,” Leach says.

Soda bread is another family favourite, continuing a tradition from Leach’s Irish heritage. “One of my earliest memories is making soda bread with my mum and visiting my grandmother in Ireland, who made it every morning,” he says. “Now I do it with my kids too.”

Ages 8 to 10

By this age, children can probably read and follow a recipe, so an illustrated kids’ cookbook is useful for ideas and clear instructions. “I keep cook books on a shelf at my son’s eye level, so he can look at them if he’s curious,” Hagger says. “It’s all about capturing their curiosity.”

They might be capable of cooking a simple meal all on their own using one pan or a microwave – think scrambled eggs on toast or porridge, says Upton. “Something that uses a few ingredients that are easily combined.”

Porridge is a winner in Khoo’s household. “My eight-year-old is currently mastering the art of making his breakfast, a protein-rich porridge combining oats, milk, and eggs, whisked in at the end,” she explains. “It’s a seemingly simple breakfast that becomes a lesson in patience and precision due to our temperamental induction hob.”

Hagger suggests encouraging kids to cook dishes they’re familiar with, perhaps a creamy curry they’ve had for school lunch or a spicy soup they’ve tried at a restaurant “Children are really opening up to spices at this age,” she says.

Ages 11 to 13

Pre-teens can start to coordinate the timings of different meal components, but one-pan dishes are a great option. At Flavours, a popular dish is a one-pan roast dinner [see recipe below], which gives kids a real sense of achievement. Hagger suggests serving it with gravy made from granules. “It’s OK not to make everything from scratch at this age,” she says.

Upton agrees, recommending that pre-teens cook a pasta dish independently by combining a ready-made tomato sauce with tinned tuna. “It’s a bridge to learning how to make the sauce from scratch,” she says. “There’s a lot of pressure these days to avoid jars or packets, but we need to approach children’s cooking with pragmatism.”

Giving children some choice about what they cook can also encourage them into the kitchen. When my children were 11 and eight, they helped me write The Seriously Good Kids Cookbook. Their favourite dishes included sausages and mash, spaghetti Bolognese and potato salad, which they enthusiastically cooked on repeat during recipe testing – spurred on by the fact they could tuck in afterwards.

Ages 14 to 16

Some experts claim that social media platforms like TikTok reduce cooking to mere entertainment, but Upton disagrees. “Most teenagers I work with do make the dishes they see on TikTok,” she says. “And the reality is that social media is how they access information, and these platforms really can inspire them.”

Hagger says that teens gain enormous confidence from the six-week cooking course she runs at Flavours. “The kids will see a massive difference from week one to six. They come and they make a savoury and a sweet, and the encouragement is for them to take that home, maybe add a side to it, and that’s their family meal.” At this stage, she also encourages them to learn some advanced kitchen skills. “I start to introduce them to professional vegetable cuts, the kind a chef would learn in the kitchen.”

Exploring different cuisines is another way to motivate teenagers. Adam Smith, executive chef of Coworth Park (including Michelin-starred Woven by Adam Smith), says his children, aged 15 and 10, really embraced cooking during a family holiday to Italy. “It was an opportunity to see a whole different food culture – all the different fruits and vegetables, in all different shapes and sizes and colours,” Smith says.

Smith’s children help him make wholesome dishes like stews, shepherd’s pie, and lasagne – the kind of meals he grew up with. “What’s important for me is that my kids have a healthy relationship with food,” he says. “It’s about awareness and exposure to cooking from scratch.”

For Tom Hamblet, newly appointed head chef at The Avenue at Lainston House at the age of 25, and winner of MasterChef: The Professionals 2023, these years were pivotal. His parents, both chefs, often worked late, so Tom was tasked with cooking dinner for himself and his siblings several times a week.

As his confidence improved, he learnt to make simple meals like fajitas and bangers and mash. “The occasional takeaway is nice but not cooking for yourself at all is quite a bad habit to get into, not only for your health but also your bank account.”

Sue Quinn is the author of The Seriously Good Kids’ Cookbook (Quadrille, £14.99); Flavours School of Cookery runs classes for children and teenagers from five to 16.