Teach Your Children Well

That's the title of Ruth Reichl's editorial in the new Gourmet magazine on the idea of "children's food," which she detests:

For starters, the notion that children are a separate species who require a different diet from the rest of us pretty much does away with the concept of the family meal. The point of eating together, it seems to me, is not just that we all sit down around the same table but also that we share the food. The same food.

Good point. And:

When we offer our children a different menu, we are telling them that they are different from us. And being different, that we also have different expectations of them. Why, then, should we be surprised that many modern children have such poor table manners? In giving them children's food, we are essentially telling them that they are not expected to behave like adults when they are at the table.

Right on! Nothing irks me more than rowdy, misbehaving kids in a restaurant. Finally:

But there's an even more important reason for us to be dismayed by special menus aimed at pleasing young palates. When we feed children the old familiar grilled cheese sandwiches and vanilla ice cream, we are teaching them to stick with the tried-and-true instead of encouraging them to dare to taste the new.

It definitely makes sense to me that if kids are given the same, or very similar, food to what their parents eat, this could teach the child very early on to be adventurous with eating and hence make it much more likely they will have a well-rounded, well-balanced diet.

This reminds me of Jacques Pepin's book The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen (which is great by the way), in which he recounts that as a young child growing up in France, the adults would dip sugarcubes in champagne and give them to the children, which would not only give the kids their first taste of champage, but in such a way as to impart the special-ness of the drink, that it's a treat to be savored and enjoyed and not just gulped down. They would also be given small glasses of extremely diluted wine from a young age. I think these are great ideas and I would love to do that with my children if I ever have them.

I would also give my children grilled cheese and vanilla ice cream - two of my absolute favorite foods!

(The editorial is not on the website, so you'll have to buy the new Gourment to read the whole thing).