For our Princess’ 10th birthday party, I organised a MasterChef-style cooking party – a ‘master’stroke if I do say so myself! 😉

A cooking-themed birthday party is a super-fun way of introducing children to new foods, while also teaching them important facts about food, nutrition and wastage. Your child and her friends will have a rollicking time cooking and discover a new appreciation for food – an important aspect of life they’ve probably always taken for granted (Muuuum! Spinach? Again?!) ☺ 

Now that you know what you’ll need, are you ready to throw your precious child a party they’ll never forget? Read on my step-by-step description  of our MasterChef extravaganza!

Yes Chef! ☺

#1: COMPILE YOUR GUEST LIST AND ORGANISE (i.e. HIRE) A WORKSPACE

Confirm how many of your child’s friends can attend the party.

Shop around for a restaurant or banquet hall that will hire out their kitchen for a few hours. And if they can provide the services of one of their chefs, even better! 

If you dont have budget for a venue, you can even organize this on your building terrace/ banquet/ home and keep recipes which require only assembling and not cooking. However, be prepared for total chaos for a few hours. I have one more word for you – CLEANUP ☺

I live in a small space so I had booked  APB Cookstudio for this party.

#2: LOGO AND ORDER CHEF’S WHITES

Find a supplier of chef’s aprons and toques (white looks most authentic and ‘chef’-like) and place your order. Don’t forget to ask for a bulk discount!

The chef caps were provided by APB studio.

#2 is completely optional but if you want to throw your child an authentic MasterChef party, I highly recommend you arrange for these items. The little chefs can keep these items as gifts from the birthday girl. They’ll be so stoked they’ll rave about the party for years! The aprons were designed by her aunt who owns Modeinde label. The chef caps were provided by the cook studio.

#3: CHOOSE RECIPES

Pick out 3 or 4 recipes suitable for kids to try. For my daughter’s party, we chose Mojito (virgin of course), salsa, sour cream and Empanadas. 

If you are planning at home, I would recommend that you test these recipes in your own kitchen beforehand. Even deceptively simple dishes (for adults at least!) can prove tricky for inexperienced kids.

#4: MAKE A RECIPE BOOK

To make the party even more memorable, you can print a MasterChef booklet for your guests. Once my recipes were finalized I got those recipes printed in a personlaized cookbook.  I included  the recipes they were going to make during the event with a few more recipes and some quizzes. The first two pages looked like this. I even made my daughter sign the book 🙂

The internal recipe pages looked like these:

The recipe book was designed by her aunt who owns Victrio nutrition.

#5: ORGANISE THE LITTLE CHEFS

The kids were divided  in pairs of little chefs  at the long worktables in the kitchen. All the ingredients and equipment were given alongwith their recipe books. 

This is a great time to explain nutritional terms to the children. The kids were explained difeerence between fast and slow food, and the importance of a balanced diet, the dos and don’ts of kitchen hygiene and safety (wash your hands, don’t run in the kitchen, speak clearly, etc). They were then asked some quizzes. 

#6: GET THE LITTLE CHEFS COOKING!

The birthday girl was  the ‘sous chef’ with her  toque saying ‘Keep Calm, I am the birthday girl’ and personalised Apron saying ‘Masterchef” with her name.

The main chef at Cook studio explained the recipes, ingredients and steps to the birthday girl/sous chef. The birthday girl/sous chef answers to the main chef and had plenty of authority in the kitchen (it is her party after all!). She  then ran the kitchen demonstrating the recipes and gave instructions to her friends.

What a wonderful way to help her develop her leadership and interpersonal skills. Bonus – she runs the show, so she knows she’s special! For the most part, stay out of the way when your little MasterChef and her friends are creating their masterpieces. Let them have the space to be creative, try new things and even make a mess (how else can you learn how to cook?!)

Don’t forget to take lots of candid pictures!

 

Encourage the kids to taste their creations and ask them questions about taste, flavour, presentation, etc. If they ask for your feedback, be generous. 

#7: THE CAKE AND RETURN GIFTS

Birthday = Cake !!!

This time I ordered a simple plain white chef cap and put the logo of Masterchef. Then I put all the barbie kitchen set vessels on the cake.

For the return gifts, I had personalised recipe booklets printed for each child, with their names on the front and a little ‘personality blurb’ for the child on the back. Moms were more than happy to write about their kids and send it to me. Here are some pictures:

They little chefs were not expecting such a unique take-away gift, so and the hugs and thank yous I got made the effort worthwhile! And my daughter had the most amazing time learning about food, leadership and creativity.

Have fun and bon appétit!