As a cooking teacher, I like to wander off the beaten path. No, I don’t particularly want to show young cooks how to make cheese enchiladas. Or turkey chili. Or really, unless they’re very young, scrambled eggs. (I’m well aware that a class about nothing but those would be wildly popular, though, as long as we made a huge quantity, given the way most tiny chefs seem to love nothing better than the simple satisfaction that comes, over and over, with cracking an egg.)
Yet I’m not oblivious to what sells. And while adult and kid cooks may have entirely different attitudes about an ingredient like eggs (just try getting a grown-up student to separate more than a few of them at a time), if we’re talking about oeufs, we’re suddenly dealing with a subject that everybody loves. Because most students, no matter their age, are crazy about French cooking.
And with good reason. Whatever draws them into a class offering French dishes or desserts, I’m happy to keep them there and show them more. Come for the fancy-sounding menu and a little chance to show off, I say, and stay for all the lessons about flavor and technique.
In that spirit, this week, I offer a round-up of a few of my favorite books for young chefs about French cuisine—along with a recipe adapted from one of them that will give the youngest bakers a chance to whip up their own easy macarons.
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