New Favorites for New Cooks

January 8, 2018
This collection of go-to recipes doubles as a primer for developing crucial cooking skills. Food educator Federman includes quick, photographic tutorials on topics that include knife skills, common spices, and how to separate eggs. She then features 50 recipes in the categories of breakfast foods, lunch, snacks, drinks, dinner, and desserts, guiding readers with a straightforward presentation, pointers, and q&as (“How do I tell if a melon is ripe?”). Readers should easily grasp such staples as vinaigrettes, hard-boiled eggs, and avocado toast, as well as more challenging selections that include pesto paninis and summer rolls with peanut sauce. (Many of the recipes are vegetarian, and low-gluten and gluten-free ones aren’t hard to find either.) Federman never talks down to her audience, tacitly suggesting that all kids have it in them to be discerning chefs. Ages 8–12.