Junior MasterChef

The final episodes of Junior MasterChef are airing tonight and tomorrow night, and I'm excited. Who will be the winner?

Personally, I love this show. Some of those dishes the kids plate up are truly amazing. When I was young I used to love baking, although I would never compare myself to any of these Junior MasterChefs.

I've read a lot of articles over the past couple of months with writers criticising the show for exposing children to anxiety and stress, and all the rest. Let's take a look at the nutritional side.

Nutritionally, how is Junior MasterChef doing?

On Friday night in the final Masterclass they made the most delicious looking chocolate pudding using butter, full cream milk and chocolate. These ingredients are all high in saturated fat (the bad artery clogging fat) and high in calories in general.

The focus of Junior MasterChef is on cooking, not nutrition (if it was on nutrition I would have been picked to go through to the top 50 during my audition last year, for the adult show that is).

We do see a lot of ingredients that are not so ideal nutritionally that the kids are encouraged to use, like butter, cream, full cream milk, sugar, white flours, salt, salt, and salt! It was sad to hear one of the young girls say to the judges when she was critiquing her dish that she "could have added more salt".

Despite this, I must say that if anything, this show is teaching and inspiring kids to cook!

It is suprising the number of Gen Y and even Gen Z kids these days that have little cooking skills. Even just having the basics, such as cooking a piece of meat, or steaming vegetables is unknown for some. What will happen if kids don't develop these skills when they are young? Chances are when they move out of home they may eat out regularly or worse buy fast food as their staple meals.

What I love about Junior MasterChef...

All in all I think Junior MasterChef has a lot of positives to offer. This show encourages kids to develop cooking skills, which are really priceless skills to have. Kids can be educated over time on foods that should be eaten most, and those that should be eaten least, but cementing basic cooking skills is essential.

When I was a kid, there was nothing I liked more than to bake cakes and desserts. Pavlova, cheesecakes, brownies, muffins and lemon meringue pies were just a few of my 'signature dishes'. As I got older, I learnt more about what foods were better for me than others, and I started to experiment with my cooking to see how I could make it healthier. For example I would add crushed up Weet-Bix and fruit to my muffins, and when serving pavlova I would make sure that portions were small, and everyone received plenty of fresh fruit on their plate. I would use a brownie recipe that used olive oil instead of butter, and cocoa powder instead of chocolate.

Pav - 2004

Junior MasterChef should also be applauded for how it encourages vegetable consumption. With almost every main meal there are vegetables served, and the show teaches the kids the many ways of cooking vegetables, and that they don't have to be boring. Thumbs up to any TV show that encourages kids to eat their vegetables! Junior MasterChef has also had Cook-A-Longs, where they give viewers the recipe in advance so they can buy the ingredients and 'cook-a-long' as they watch the show at home. So again this is promoting kids in the kitchen, with parent supervision required, meaning the whole family gets involved.

I have to give a big shout out to my wonderful parents, who endlessly encouraged me to get in the kitchen and whip up a storm. Dad would even eat the salads I created even though there was sometimes no meat in them.

(That's me and my mum)

Sometimes it ended in tears (and a few tantrums when my cakes were a flop), but looking back I am so thankful that they gave me this opportunity to learn how to cook. I reckon it's one of the reasons I am a dietitian today!

Here's a couple of pics of my dad who recently cooked some amazing pizzas for the family (with labels and all - that's his sense of humour for you).