More children are falling in love with cooking

Annabelle Krumins is barely 10 years old and already knows her way around the kitchen.

“My favorite thing is to make brownies,” she says.

Her mom, Tiffany, supports the hobby, but her time is limited, so she buys special baking kits for Annabelle.

“They come with everything you need in it, minus the eggs. And she is able to just take and go step 1 through step 10 and complete the whole project,” Tiffany says.

Kits are just one of many options hitting the market for kids who cook, according to Sally Sampson, the founder of ChopChop family.

“Magazines, there are videos, there are apps, cooking kids TV shows. It’s kind of endless,” says Sampson.

There are even summer camps that feature kid foodies…all intended to grow culinary curiosity in kids.

The ChopChop group even has an online cooking club complete with a mobile app that walks kids through recipes. Sampson says it’s easy for parents to use cooking to teach other essential life skills.

“So, by cooking, you can learn math,” she said. “You can learn about fractions. You can learn about multiplication. You can learn about science, so there’s fermentation there. You can learn about different cultures. You can learn about money by shopping, and seeing what’s less, what’s more.”

Krumins explains her lessons go even deeper, saying, “I’m trying to teach her independence.”

14-year-old Janie Nelson is so comfortable cooking she now is a Kid Ambassador for ChopChop and expands on recipes of her own.

“I love experimenting and adding in all the different ingredients and tasting it every once in a while to see what flavors I liked…then what flavors I might take out the next time,” Nelson says.

The bottom line: more and more children are falling in love with cooking, and there’s a surge in services to satisfy their cravings.

Annabelle says she’ll keep cooking as long as her family savors her creations, saying, “I feel like I get appreciated and they enjoy it.”