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Photograph by George Sakkestad

Children and their parents can work together to create healthy meals with a Playful Chef kit. Saratoga's (from left) Tara Anderson and her children Quincy, 8, and Miles, 6, team up with Diane Douglass, 9, and her mother Kathryn to prepare a recipe.

Silly parents, kits are for kids--and they're healthy

By Shannon Burkey

In a world where McDonald's reigns supreme in most kids' minds, two Saratoga moms are doing their part to change the way children think about food and teach them that nutritious foods can be fun.

After all, fun with food is what Playful Chef is all about.

Tara Anderson and Diane Douglass, both Saratoga moms and ex-Silicon Valley executives, became involved with Playful Chef a year ago after their friend, Playful Chef founder Lisa Ligon, told them about her idea.

"This really is about having an enjoyment of being in the kitchen and learning how fun healthy cooking can be," said Ligon.

The idea behind Playful Chef is simple: Teach children healthy eating habits, and in the process they will learn other skills, including hygiene, science, math, motor and social skills.

"Learning how to cook and eat healthy is a basic life skill," said Ligon. "A lot of the products on the market today are for play, but Playful Chef is really a learning experience."

And with all the products out there for children, Ligon said there are none that focus on healthy eating.

"The only other thing out there is the Easy-Bake Oven, and it's almost all sugar," she said.

Each Playful Chef kit comes with 10 kid-sized cooking utensils, including a spatula, basting brush and measuring cups and spoons, a toolbelt apron and five recipe cards with step-by-step instructions on how to plan, prepare and clean up after each meal.

Each recipe card has 10 steps for the children to follow. Along the way there are illustrations depicting the lessons being learned. Math and science play a big role in the process of cooking, and the children are helped in this area with color-coded measuring cups and spoons that are coordinated with the measurements on the recipe cards.

Although there are many lessons to be learned through Playful Chef, food is the central theme.

"The recipes are for kid-friendly food, but we do it in a healthy way using lots of seasoning," Ligon said. "We're not proponents of kids eating boring food."

With recipes that include golden chicken nuggets, pita pizzas and a chocolate mountain lava cake, Playful Chef food isn't boring either the kids or their parents.

"Sometimes we'll make the chicken nuggets for the family because we all like them," said Anderson.

Anderson has two boys, ages 6 and 8, and she said they both love using Playful Chef. In fact, about 50 percent of the kits they sell are going to boys.

"My youngest son had it first and the oldest one always showed an interest in it, so I asked him if he wanted one and he said yes," Anderson said.

Now she spends time in the kitchen with both her sons.

"It really encourages people to spend more time with their family," she said. "I think people of all ages like it because it gets back to the traditional values of cooking and eating together."

Children also want to be like their parents and Playful Chef gives them that chance.

"Children have a real natural curiosity at that age and want to model their parents. This helps them to do that and empowers them to learn," Ligon said.

Douglass' 9-year-old daughter has taken to Playful Chef and spends a lot of time in the kitchen with her mom now--she even washes all of the used utensils from her kit herself.

"The kids are really getting into the cooking part and it's becoming more fun for them," Douglass said.

And the three hope that as the children who use Playful Chef grow up, eating will remain fun and healthy.

"We really want to send a message and bring people back to eating right," Ligon said.