My DH is an incredible cook, as al child he became his mother carer, he had to cook for bed ridden mother, siblings and student lodgers,
from a tiny budget, ridiculous tiny budget, when i met him I was a single parent student, he was feeding students and parent on a smaller budget than I and bf baby were spending,
the mess thing become irrelevant if children are involved in doing the daily meal prep and cooking, they soon learn to be neat as they go along, if you make sure they are never released from the project,
if you start with a clean sink, surface and empty dishwasher, they can clean as they go along.
we never allow half measures, if you are doing a job you are doing it properly, food must be respected,
I have yet to find a food that they don't eat,
No one is allowed to say, "I don't like this" , you say, "I haven't learnt to appreciate it yet" or you are brain washing yourself,
when they realised by doing the cooking, they could make the things they were less keen on, more to their taste they wanted to be in control,
DS really struggled with reading (dyslexic), it has really helped him, he also uses an audio reader on the kitchen computer, so he just highlights text and he can check he has read a recipe properly, mostly he just uses recipes for timings and temperature advice. He sets timers on the computer when he has lots going on.
when they were little if we had food on the table that they may of turned their noses up at, I would tell them that particular food was not for them really as it was adult food and their uneducated palate would not appreciate it yet, and then they would be determined to want it,
when we don't like food, it is because our brains don't recognise it as a food source, they know this so actively try training their own brains, my testing to see if they like something yet, and being massively pleased with themselves when it clicks,
DD wasn't keen to start with, with plain salad leaves, we have a lot of salad we grow more than we can eat, so she set about making dressings she likes, i turned a blind eye to the over use of brown sugar and honey, eventually she hit on dressings she likes, and would happily much a bowl of leaves and toasted seeds, she still makes dressings, but they only ever have a little bit of honey, and she eats them plain now,
children need to be really involved in everyday cooking to become food literate,
we talk about proteins, carbohydrates, fruits, veg, minerals, vitamins ,dairy , calcium,iron, zinc, fats, oils, sweets, salt.iron, fiber and why they are needed, when and what they come from,
so when they are planning meals they have to think what veg they have, what protein and then what brings it together.
they know what to eat before they train, and what to eat after,and which food to find it in, they know how much salt they need, they know how to avoid any unnecessary salt(use celery), so they can save it for crisps and other junk.
If mine want biscuits , cakes and junk, they make it, they are like lighting at producing goodies now, and you would never know they had been in the kitchen, because they know they would instantly lose the privilege.
by far the easiest way to get them to understand the whole picture is get them to do the everyday stuff,
DS gives me tips now, scared the pants of the food tec teacher, she was a little surprised, when he started this year.
DS, rockcake tip, use dried cranberries rather than raisins (or a mix), much nicer.
His bread is better than mine, his cakes are better, his fish cooking is better, his pastry is far better than mine,pasta is better, I'm holding on to my bolognese recipe, but i think his is pretty near, if he knows a friend of ours cooks something brilliantly, he asks if he can cook it with them, then comes home and repeats as many times as we are prepared to eat it, we ate a lot of sushi.
he thinks it a treat if we buy special ingredients so he always wants to cook,
because we got them into cooking, by doing it with them when we were cooking anyway, it wasn't an effort, even boiling an egg is worth getting them to do, just explain to them what they are trying to do,
You tube tutorials for knife technique, or recipes to follow,
is brilliant, we have now eaten everything she has demonstrate quite a few times, you tube means you can watch it through, get the ingredients ready, then follow by starting and stopping.
if you get them working with you doing all the normal cooking, you will be really surprised how quickly they just take off on their own.