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Slate write Sara Dickerman had a problem: her 4-year-old son didn’t want to eat his vegetables. This problem is not uncommon, of course, but effective solutions are rare. (Personal digression: I recall one incident around age 5 when I had to sit at the dinner table contemplating my bowl of pea soup for what seemed like hours. I don’t recall whether I finally ate it, but these days I love pea soup. Who knew?) Anyway, Dickerman tried the standard solutions — cooking with him, putting more vegetables on the plate, eating her own vegetables with gusto — to no effect. Dickerman figured there might be a way to make vegetables fun. Here’s what she did:
Frustrated but not yet willing to give up, I enlisted the help of an unlikely accomplice: El Bulli chef Ferran Adria. Adria is perhaps the most famous chef in the world, known as a leader in the field of “molecular gastronomy”— a kind of kitchen alchemy that transforms prime ingredients into surreal concoctions using high-tech tools and commercial food additives. His recipes are full of surprise and playfulness: strange juxtapositions of hot and cold ingredients, intensely flavored frozen powders, and mysterious liquid-centered gelatin orbs made through a process called spherification. The Adrian table is as much magic show as it is dinner, and I wondered if the Critic might have an affinity for such playful food. After all, he’s a fan of alphabet pasta, fruit gels shaped like Legos, and animal crackers. …
After making tomato spheres, broccoli spheres, and carrot “air,” Dickerman pretty much gave up (it was too weird for the poor kid). But anyway, read the rest for a fun overview of how molecular gastronomy might — or might not — make vegetables fun.
(Via Kottke.org.)
Comments (6)
Comment
I hate to be an old stick in the mud … but, when I was kid, if I didn’t eat my veggies, I would often go to bed hungry. It didn’t take too many hungry nights for my to start eating my veggies. I also discovered they were actually pretty good. Now, as an adult, there isn’t a veggie I won’t touch.
Kids these days are too soft. It makes me think of those pediasure commercials. Where the kid won’t eat anything healthy, so mom gives here a canned milkshake. It’s BS.
posted by Alice on 10-13-2008 at 5:11 pm
Sorry to antagonize, Alice, but that last bit puts the blame on the parents, not the kids. You admitted to not eating veggies at one point, so your parents were strict. In your latter example, the kid acts as you did, but is given milkshakes by the parents. If the kids are too soft (which is undeniable), then it is the parents fault. Hence, They are too soft (if you set the bar of effective parenting at starving non compliant children), and then they influence the children
posted by Will on 10-13-2008 at 5:29 pm
Kids can be finicky, and parents can choose whether or not to indulge them. I would suggest that parents should not indulge them. It ruins the balance of power. I didn’t say the parents weren’t at fault.
For the record, I did not say anyone should starve a child. I said going to bed hungry. That means not having finished a complete supper. I’d eat the meat and not the veggies. My parents didn’t pawn off a milkshake on me.
Either way, I wasn’t really trying to say who was at fault, rather, just trying to suggest that their is a problem. However, if I were pressed on the issue, I’d say the fault lies with the parents. We’re talking about little kids. At that stage, surely the power lies with the parents.
posted by Alice on 10-13-2008 at 5:50 pm
Well, up until I had my second child I would have agreed with you 100%. I would have told you no child of mine was going to control my dinner table.
Instead, I’ve learned that you can’t make a kid eat and you can’t make them poop. These are two battles you absolutely cannot win.
That doesn’t mean that you have to give in and give them what they want, but if a child decides they aren’t going to eat something, there isn’t a dag on thing you can do about it.
And not every child that is picky is just being ornery. My son has sensory issues, so there are a great many factors that go into him trying new foods. But after spending years now and trying every method ever suggested, I’ve figured out that even children with out offical diagonsis can have great anxiety over food.
What I’ve mostly learned though, is that while I don’t agree with a lot of parenting choices these days, I no longer judge parents in that way. I don’t think that my successes are evidences of their failure or vice versa. They may just be lazy parents, but they may be struggling in every way possible to do what is best for their child.
posted by Karen on 10-13-2008 at 9:10 pm
Coincidentally, I just picked up a copy of Grant Achatz’s cookbook over the weekend. Achatz trained ever so briefly under Adria and he now runs one of the best restaurants in America.
I will say, to use the term “cookbook” is a bit of a stretch. This is much more of a combination of art and chemistry, requiring substantial amounts of highly specialized ingredients and cookware as well as a good degree to skill to perfect.
And I question the ulitmate result. While I have great respect for Achatz’s and Adria’s creations and Dickerman’s creativity, I think feeding carrot “air” or gellified broccoli to your kid probably defeats the original point of trying to get your kid to eat healthy veggies. Excessive boiling of vegetables pretty much destroys the nutrient content and straining them removes the beneficial fiber.
posted by Florida on 10-14-2008 at 10:04 am
I went to Achatz’s restaurant, Alinea, in Chicago. Talk about weird!! Some of those courses were unbelievable. And pricey. With wine and tips, the “tour” cost over $700 for two. Yeah, I know. More money than sense. But restaurants are our hobby. I definitely wouldn’t call Alinea the best, just the most unusual one I’ve been to. I’ve pre-ordered an autographed copy of the book just to be able to remember all the bizarre things I actually ate there.
posted by jo on 10-14-2008 at 1:03 pm