Put Cooking in Context

• Do some research to help children understand why others eat differently from the way they do. Library books with pictures of other cultures help to introduce cultural differences, especially if you can find books showing food and its preparation. Children who already like tacos are likely to enjoy a book on Mexico. Asian food preparation makes a lot more sense to kids who have learned how cooks make the most of scarce cooking-fuel. Learning how foods like pineapple and sugar cane grow can tempt your children to try them, even if yours come from the supermarket. Restaurant visits can enhance curiosity. (Aim for lunch or a snack, even if your children are well-rounded eaters. Too much strange food, combined with the weariness of the end of the day, can put children off from trying another cuisine.) International food fairs and markets make great visiting sites and may help you acquire authentic ingredients. Visiting a Chinese market or going to Little Italy exposes children to different ways of eating.
  
  

Fostering Participation

• Adapt kitchen equipment and recipes as needed to let children take a large part in cooking. Even young children can cut many vegetables, butter and cheese with a plastic picnic knife. Scooping, measuring, using the rolling pin, and threading items on skewers all work well for young cooks.
  
  

Season With Caution

• Remember that kids' palates tend to be more sensitive than those of adults. When introducing new seasonings, encourage sniffing and tasting, and apply with a light hand. Putting the cinnamon on Moroccan chicken or into Mexican hot chocolate, adding fresh garlic to a tomato sauce, and tasting the complexities of curry powder can widely expand kids' taste horizons. Fresh herbs like basil and mint can be tasted raw, then followed through to see how they affect a prepared dish like spaghetti sauce or tabouleh. Tasting at all stages should be encouraged, except with raw eggs or meat. Dinner may be a little smaller, but your young cooks' curiosity will be larger.
  
  

Start With the Familiar

• Begin multicultural explorations with ingredients that are already familiar, especially if they are already family favorites. This will both remind children of what people in various cultures have in common and let them see the differences. A concept, such as bread or sandwiches, or an ingredient, such as corn or chicken, can lead you in a wide variety of multicultural directions. This method of exploration is sufficiently popular that you may well find themed cookbooks that follow an ingredient from Native America to Africa.
  
  

Leave Room for Failure

• Allow room for "I don't like it" in your explorations. Food is an experience that combines both the senses and the emotions for both adults and children. Don't dismiss a whole cuisine on the basis of one dish. Suggest that perhaps it is not the favorite of children growing up with it either. Children who have participated in cooking the dish can be encouraged to define what makes it unpleasant--and so may you. You may just not be a cilantro family; then again, no one hates absolutely everything about Korean food. Chalk less appealing dishes up to learning and go on. Remember, children can be more strongly affected by adult negativity than you realize, so offer opinions with care.
  
  

Keep Cooking in Perspective

• Remember that multicultural cooking is merely part of a larger learning experience. Learning about the food people eat means learning about people, where and how they live. Cooking it adds to that understanding but also lets children and adults learn about working together. The laughter and conversation that accompanied your batch of homemade tortillas matters more in your kids' overall development than how the tortillas came out.