Cooking with Kids:If You Like Ratatouille….
April 11, 2008 by Marye Audet
Filed under Kid Friendly Recipes, Uncategorized
Images: (c)2006-2008 Marye Audet, Apron Strings & Simmering Things
Content: (c)2008 Marye Audet, Baking Delights
Chef Kyrie and I found ourselves at the store yesterday and as we were engaging in our second favorite activity (cooking being first, book browsing being second) we came upon a book. A cookbook to be exact.
Now, my favorite movie, personally is Mostly Martha, the German version with subtitles. It is a movie, appropriately about a chef. A rather cranky chef. Chef Kyrie’s favorite movie is Ratatouille. It, too, is about a chef. A rat chef. In fact, she often asks me if the rat (referring to herself) can help me cook.
So when I saw her face light up..and her eyes widen I knew she had found gold in the form of a book and I mentally counted my money.
What’s Cooking? A Cookbook for Kids is a cookbook linked to the movie, Ratatouille. It has some amazing, kid-friendly recipes. I fell in love with it. Who could resist Gusteau’s Grilled Cheese, or one of my personal favorites, Faux Escargots. The faux escargots are sliced meat and cheese roll-ups with a pickle attached to that they look exactly like adorable snails on the plate.
With glorious creations like the Eiffel Tower Cookie Sundae, which looks exactly like mini Eiffel Towers, I can easily use this book in a fun homeschool unit study about France.
Each recipe has fantastic photography so your child can see what the finished product should look like. The ingredients are simple, and easily available, and the instructions are numbered for easy reference. Most of the recipes have no more than 3 steps. Each recipe has an illustration of the characters from the movie in different actions, and certain recipes have “Gusteau’s Tip”, extra information to help make the recipe better, or explain a certain detail a bit more.
The book is perfect for preschool chefs through maybe 3rd grade, although at my house the older siblings have all ready asked Chef Kyrie if she wants them to help her make a recipe from her cookbook.
The binding is a covered spiral, so the book lays flat, and the cover and pages are sturdy. This is not one of those books that will fall apart halfway through the third recipe you make from it. It is put out by Disney/Pixar.
If you have a small chef, or a small chef wanna-be Chef Kyrie gives this book 5 stars.
What a fun book! I know y’all will enjoy that. I agree with the Mostly Martha movie. My mom and I watched it together, randomly, a few years ago and loved it. I thought that No Reservations was good, but Mostly Martha was definitely better.
I love kid’s cookbooks. There always so cute.
Chef Kyrie is sure is a cutie there!
Claire-I totally agree!
Megan- Thanks..we think so.
don’t know about the book…or anything for kids… but I love the movie…(I think we have watched it about 6 times) love the rat… and his brother too…Emile is cute.
I found the original Ratatouille recipe… made a version and it is pretty tasty…
Vee,
Ratatouille, the recipe, is fabuous! The movie is adorable as well, we must have seen it a million times so far.
I’d watched No Reservations I guess about a month ago and enjoyed it–but also found it had been inspired by Mostly Martha, so I was intrigued. Your post reminded me that I needed to see it.
So I watched Mostly Martha yesterday–definitely must better than No Reservations! While the American remake was good, it certainly lost the essence of the original.
I also enjoyed Ratatouille!
MrsW-You obviously have superior taste in movies!