That's my son up there. The one with the chef's hat, contemplating his bite of duck breast.
My wife and I took him with us on our tenth anniversary dinner. We sat at the chef's table in the kitchen of Frasca Food & Wine, a restaurant just nominated once again for the James Beard Foundation's Most Outstanding Restaurant Award, surrounded on three sides by foodservice equipment.
He made it through the entire three-hour meal -- as a three-year-old -- and then he melted down as soon as we walked out the door.
It's safe to say we've turned him into a foodie, and here's how we did it:
1) We started early. My wife is a neonatal feeding specialist, so we had him on the track to good eating habits from day one. I'm not smart enough to talk about this aspect in detail.
2) Be persistent. If at first they don't like something, try and try again. It took us about six or seven times until my son started to like Tikka Masala. Now it's one of his favorite dishes. We tried different brands of sauces and different restaurants, but it's really the persistency that worked.
3) No snacking. Seriously, this is a big one. Snacking at certain times of the day is okay, but not an hour before dinner. When you sit down to dinner, you SHOULD be hungry.
4) Use tricks. When your kid sits down to the dinner table hungry because she didn't snack an hour before dinner, serve your meal in courses. Introduce new foods or the things she might not like as the first course. This is when she's the most hungry and open to trying new things. If she doesn't like it, refer to rule two.
5) Make food fun. After all, meals really are some of the most enjoyable parts of the day. Include your kids on menu decisions, solicit their input on which restaurants they would like to go to, and involve them in the cooking process. Also, don't rush it. If food is truly fun, we should embrace the times we eat. There's no need to rush through dinner every night.
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