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Published: August 10, 2007
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 | Kids can be an essential ingredient in the family kitchen. |
A Heaping Helping of Advice Here is some sage advice from the professionals on how to have a fun, safe cooking experience with your child: Bobby Huber, Bobbywood:
Chad Martin, Create Bistro:
Patrick Reed, Virginia Beach Technical and Career Center:
Gregory Retz, Beth Sholom Village:
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Look at them as: an assistant to stir the pancake batter, someone to help load the dishwasher, an adventurer trying new flavors, a student learning about other lands through their cuisine, and a future adult who will one day have to cook for themselves.
So, how is it in the home kitchens of professional chefs who also happen to be parents? Are their children budding foodies, eschewing fast food for haute cuisine? Are the kids budding Rachael Rays and Emeril Lagasses, just waiting to take the culinary industry by storm?
We asked four local chefs about what is shaking and baking when their kids get stirred into the mix, and found the results to be pretty sweet.
Bobby Huber owns Bobbywood, an upscale restaurant in downtown Norfolk. The Norfolk resident, who has cheffed at such venerable eateries as Ship's Cabin, has been in the food industry for about 20 years. He is dad to Zachary, 5, who starts kindergarten in the fall.
"When he was a baby, I used to put him on the line (in his professional kitchen) with me," Huber says. "He demands to cook with me, and loves to help with anything daddy is cooking."
At age two, Zachary started his cooking career, assisting his father with making Chocolate Sin Pie.
"I think his whole body was covered with chocolate," Huber says.
Thirteen-year-old Cameron Martin also loves to help his dad, Chad Martin, who owns Create Bistro in Newport News' Hilton Village. Martin began exposing Cameron to different foods and flavors at age five; by age seven, the pair was cooking a steak dinner together.
Martin thinks it is important to get a child into the kitchen, regardless of future career paths. The experience can be multi-disciplinary, and teach all sorts of lessons, from culture to science to math. "I started Cameron with things he could put his hands into, such as cookie dough and Jello. Start off with things that have simple recipes they can do on their own, like macaroni and cheese," Martin says.
"If kids know so much about fast food, they probably won't be inclined to cook their own meals. So, cooking simple things at home is a good start, and I feel they have a sense of pride and accomplishment when they get to eat the fruits of their labor."
During the school year, Patrick Reed assists high school students in pursuing their culinary dreams as an instructor at the Virginia Beach Technical and Career Center. Before that, Reed was an instructor at Johnson & Wales University.
But at home, the cooking is done with a younger set - Michael, seven, and Grace, five.
"We started cooking and involving them in food preparation early," Reed says. "They both started eating a variety of foods as soon as they could tolerate solids, like cous-cous, paella, sushi rice, and the like.
"They both started in the kitchen as soon as they could stand at the workbench - three years old or so. Breakfast foods was the beginning or both: scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles, french toast - what a mess!"
Will and Abby Retz, ages seven and four, have been helping their chef/dad, Greg, in the kitchen since they were three, starting with pancakes. They also love to make bread from scratch.
"Both kids learned to knead bread by hand, and it was great watching them watch it rise through the oven door. Will has also mixed meatloaf with his bare hands - oh, gross! Abby thinks her Easy Bake oven is really cool."
Most chefs say their children have regular duties in the kitchen: Martin says Cameron loads and unload the dishwasher, and helps set the table and clean it up. He also loves to help prep the food and help cook. Reed says his kids help set and clear the table too, and cook as the need arises. It is similar duties in the Retz household, but Will and Abby also have to take out the garbage.
There are no duties yet for Zachary Huber, but dad has plans. "He will be the best dishwasher in Hampton Roads some day," he says.
And what about career paths? Cameron Martin isn't sure what he wants to do just yet, including following in his father's footsteps. The options are still open, too, for Michael and Grace in the Reed home.
Zachary Huber wants to be a chef, as well as both Will and Abby Retz. "Absolutely, possitutly," says Will. "I either want to be a cake chef, a regular chef, or, maybe a scientist."
