Annabel Karmel: First Meals

By JULIETTE ROSSANT I've been looking for a cookbook for young children that has the same philosophy I do – the more varied (and healthy) a diet young children have, the less likely they will turn up their noses or worse when offered sea urchin, babaghanouj or pate later on. I was impressed with First Meals: Fast, healthy and fun foods to tempt infants and toddlers by Annabel Karmel (New York: Dorling Kinderlsey, Revised Edition 2004), one of a many books from the same author on feeding children. Annabel starts with a guide to nutrition, baby weaning, and tips on first foods. She doesn't stick to just carrot or banana purees but offers recipes for parsnips, rutabagas, and papaya purees. The bulk of recipes are divided into age groups: 9-12 months, 12-18 months, 18 months to 7 years. Lots of recipes would be great to share with adults. She also offers lots of different foods, textures, and flavors at the end of baby's first year when kids are most receptive to new tastes. There are lots of playful recipes for finger foods and toddler foods -- I mean playful for kids -- like Chicken caterpillar kebabs (p. 126) or Chicken sausage snails (p. 81), or Chocolate cream puffs and choux pastry mice (p. 179), but most of the recipes are straightforward, good-tasting, and healthy. Each recipes includes preparation time and nutritional valuation (with advice from a team of pediatric nutritionists listed under Acknowledgements). At the end of the book is a list of suggested menus for each age group. There is a whole chapter for picky eaters with dishes like Spaghetti bolognese (p. 107) and Honey and soy salmon skewers (p. 109). I am not sure these will appeal to picky eaters, but the point of the book is to encourage the kind of enthusiastic curiosity in food that we try instill about the rest of the world. If you start with a book like this one, chances are you won't need that picky eater chapter at all. Previous articles: Nigella Lawson's Feast Cook Like a Kyrgyz Personal Favorites: The Chefs of Las Vegas Anne Willen: The Good Cook Gale Gand's short+sweet More Food from Alton Brown Manju Malhi's India With Passion SOS: Baking from the Heart Madhur Jaffrey: Our Lady of India, CBE Amazon UK's Steamy Xmas Chefs All Hail Alfred Portale Agassi's Star Palate: Celebrity Chefs Book Links: Publisher Amazon.com Technorati Tags: chefs restaurants food cookbooks babies toddlers -> back to superchefblog