Raising Gourmet Kids Is Next Parenting Trend…Because Experts Must Label Everything

By | January 29th, 2007 at 11:03 am

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An article in Sunday’s New York Times had me rolling my eyes just a bit. These Kids Never Say ‘Yech! outlines the growing trend of foodie parents raising kids who appreciate “good food.” These parents take their kids to “regular restaurants,” order off the adult menu (because there is no children’s menu), and sign up for kids’ cooking classses. I roll my eyes not because preschoolers are eating manchego and membrillo, but at the fact that this being called a trend.

For many parents like me, where eating well is a way of life, the fact that our choices are being called “trendy” seems ridiculous. My parents love good food and made sure to expose us to a wide range of culinary experiences from hand-made pasta to sashimi to arugula salad fresh from our garden. “Slow Food” wasn’t a culinary trend, it was the only way my parents knew how to cook be. I’m falling back on what I know to raise my kids the same way.

Take a look at this party I recently attended. This was exactly the kind of party I went to as a child growing up in Hawaii. There was nary a chicken finger or bowl of macaroni and cheese to be found at the party, so what did the kid eat?  Sushi and musubi (rice balls) and tempura, in other words, what the adults ate.

Call it trendy if you must, but for many parents, appreciating great food isn’t an overt, overly-thought-out lifestyle choice, it’s a normal way of life. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

[photo: my two-year-old enjoying organic wild boar sausage, spaetzle, and red cabbage at Suppenkuche, San Francisco] 

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