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After Naptime, Make the Aioli

Kid Cooks Are Younger and More Sophisticated; a New Generation of TV Chefs

Kids in the Kitchen

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Sam Comen for The Wall St. Journal

Gordon Ramsay and Sarah Lane, a child contestant from his latest TV venture, during a cooking lesson and demonstration at Hipcooks West Los Angeles.

They saute crabmeat, know the difference between spaghetti and cappellini, and can whip up an egg-white scramble. And they're often under ten years old. One of the child contestants on the new Fox network show "MasterChef Junior" and Katie Rosman join Lunch Break with a look at the junior chef demographic. Photo: Sam Cohen for The Wall Street Journal

In a food-obsessed era, youthful chefs are not rarities but a growing demographic. More kids than ever are cooking, and they're doing it younger, more elaborately, and, in some cases, for a viewing audience of knife-savvy peers. There are many widely viewed YouTube series taught by or for grade-schoolers who love to blend and mix, as well as smartphone applications that help kids collect recipes and make shopping lists.

Cooking classes around the country have children as young as 4 years old signed up to make garlic aioli and yellow squash soufflé. Parents, as well as restaurant chefs, are learning that "picky eaters" are no longer just those who eat nothing but macaroni and cheese. Increasingly, they are the kids who want more wasabi in their potato purée.

"Sometimes Sarah will taste what I've made for dinner and say, 'It's a little under-seasoned, Mom,' " says Sarah's mother, Stephanie Lane, of Los Angeles.

In New York City, kids' cooking classes are finding strong demand. Kulinary Kids NYC, launched more than four years ago by two former preschool teachers, currently is running five classes—with eight to 10 kids each—for kids ranging in age from 3 to 7. Classes, held at participants' apartments, cost $55 per week.

Young Chefs

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Children enrolled in the "international" classes learn to make chocolate croissants and sushi. In the "alphabet" classes, children make meatballs for the letter M and corn dogs for C. Using "Marty the Masher" and "Charlie the Chopper," they learn the rules of kitchen safety and the benefits of trying unusual foods. "If you get a child to eat kale, you've done your job," says Daniela Ben-Zion, Kulinary Kids NYC's co-founder.

Foodie parents turn to cooking classes to try to pass on their obsession with local ingredients. Leah Brooks launched Y.U.M. (Young Urban Modern) Chefs in San Francisco in 2012. Her classes cost about $25 a session and teach children as young as 4 how to make things like paella and pie. Ms. Brooks takes her students to local farmers' markets and helps them with the math required to weigh and buy vegetables.

Of course, the youngest chefs have their challenges. Classes for preschoolers offer the students butter knives and generally don't let the students near stove tops. Ms. Brooks of Y.U.M. says she focuses on the importance of hygiene. "I remind them a lot, 'Chefs don't touch their faces or lick their hands,' " she says.

King Crab Capellini

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But teachers can find tasks for even young kids in the kitchen. Michele Brennan hosts a weekly cooking class at her Los Angeles home for her 4- and 6-year-olds and a few of their pals. Under the guidance of a cooking teacher, the kids pick vegetables from Ms. Brennan's garden and do all the chopping of onions, mashing of ground meat and stirring of batter to make Chinese noodles, Israeli couscous, black bean chicken egg rolls and quiche. All the cooks must at least taste the dish they have made.

With safety in mind, "MasterChef Junior" producers cast kids who are 8 to 13. On "MasterChef Junior," kids are given 60-minute cooking challenges ranging from making an octopus-based main course to baking meringue desserts. Children who don't make the cut are eliminated in groups to avoid hurt feelings, producers say.

"MasterChef Junior" builds on the popularity of "MasterChef," Fox's top original show of the summer for viewers between 18 and 34 years old. International editions of "MasterChef Junior"—some aiming to reach kids as young as 4 years old—already are on the air or in the works in 18 countries, including the U.K., Denmark, India and Thailand.

Producers hope families will watch "MasterChef Junior" together. "We have a feel-good show," says Vivi Zigler, president of Shine 360 & Digital, which, along with One Potato Two Potato, produces "MasterChef" and "MasterChef Junior." (21st Century Fox FOX +0.88% owns Shine and Fox. 21st Century Fox and Wall Street Journal owner News Corp were part of the same media company until June.) The producers say they will promote a kid-friendly recipe during the week to encourage families to cook and eat it together before watching the show.

Gordon Ramsay, the celebrity chef who is one of the show's judges and producers, has a biting, critical persona on cooking competition shows "MasterChef" and "Hell's Kitchen." But he comports himself more patiently among the kid contestants. "Firm but fair," he says in describing his approach. He adds, "I have four kids—and a conscience."

"MasterChef Junior" contestants join a host of young star chefs. Amber Kelley, 10, wanted her mom to produce and star in a how-to cooking video so she could show her friends that "eating healthy was cool," she says. Her mom told her she was too busy, so last year, the Woodinville, Wash., grade-schooler decided to make her own. The video taught how to make pesto pasta with chicken and zucchini.

Wearing an apron in her home kitchen with dishes piled in the sink behind her, Amber began, "I made this cooking show because I want kids to be able to cook healthy and yummy foods for themselves when they get older and when they're young, too."

Since then, Amber's mom, Yohko, got the iMovie app for her computer and has helped her daughter make more than 50 cooking tutorials for a YouTube channel, CookWithAmber. The channel has 343 subscribers and its videos have been viewed more than 16,000 times. "To me cooking is like it's an experiment, and I love doing that sort of stuff," Amber said in an interview.

"I just wish she'd clean up the kitchen sometimes," says Yohko.

Jenny Lisk, an information-technology project manager in Redmond, Wash., cooks meals with her two children under Amber's video tutelage. Their favorite is "Amber's Yummy in My Tummy Meatballs."

Megan, Mrs. Lisk's 6-year-old daughter, likes to add the bread crumbs, which she does as Amber instructs in the video lesson, by putting the bread crumbs and the meatballs in a mug and shaking the mug while making a motorboat sound with her mouth. "I like to chop," Megan said earlier this week.

Earlier this month in Los Angeles, Mr. Ramsay met with Sarah at a teaching kitchen for a lesson in sautéed crab with pasta. "What's this?" he quizzed her, pointing to noodles as Sarah got situated on a stool to better reach the countertop.

"Capellini," she answered.

"How long does it take to cook?" Mr. Ramsay said.

"Just a few minutes," she said.

Following his instructions, Sarah let her pan get very hot before drizzling olive oil, then added shallots, a touch of salt and white wine. She struggled but managed to mimic the way he removed the cooked noodles from the water while twisting them with tongs.

In transferring the crab chunks from the skillet to the plate, she turned to more easily manipulated utensils—her fingers.

"No, no, no, use your tongs," Mr. Ramsay admonished her.

When it was time to taste the dish, both used forks and expressed their approval with a high-five and a hip bump. Then Sarah went home to do her homework.

Write to Katherine Rosman at katherine.rosman@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared September 26, 2013, on page D1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: After Naptime, Make the Aioli.

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