What age to teach children to cook?

Actually cook? As in on their own?

Or just help out?

My son started helping mix ingredients at around 20 months. I've also let him stir the scrambled eggs a bit while they were cooking, but he lost interest real quick.

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Why wouldn't you allow them to help you cook?

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Gumbo is pretty complicated. I guess he could help by stirring the Roux. But I'm not gonna give him the knife and say 'chop up this onion.'

My wife has leg my daughter "help" several times when making baked goods. All of the danger of heat and utensils is pretty much non-existent. I still don't know which one makes the bigger mess with the mixer though. And my girl can operate the toaster and microwave, but 7 may be a little young to be helping on the stove. If I have to drag a stool or chair over, then she probably shouldn't be near it.

I can vividly remember Mom & Dad buying a couple of sacks of crawfish, boiling them & then sitting on the kitchen counter helping to scrub the heads for crawfish bisque.....Think I was around 4 or so.

That really started my love of cooking & Mom never ran me out of the kitchen.....Don't think I was using sharp implements for a few years though

Not sure I'd start with stirring the roux. One bad splash that the child will be burned and crying and will not recall that as a positive experience. Watching someone make gumbo before having done much else is pretty boring.

I usually start with breakfast items and, in particular, French toast. Cracking the eggs, measuring the ingredients, whisking etc...lots a kid can do and all the kids I've had cooking with me love French toast made with French bread. You can go to your favorite old bread and cookie display and buy some day old French bread. I sometimes slice it the night before and leave the slices in the oven (not turned on) overnight to dry them out a bit more.

Same with making waffles or pancakes. It involves the measuring, stirring etc... so there are activities the child can do himself. Cracking eggs was always an exciting start. I think it thrills kids to be able to do that.

I had some kids cookbooks around that gave me ideas on other things.

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He does scramble the eggs

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That's another thing they really enjoy. They can stir and watch the eggs go from raw to the finished product and it feels like a great accomplishment to them.

I dunno. When I was 7 my dad gave me a bottle of mercury to play with. It was fun. But very heavy stuff. It rolled around like little marbles on the cement stair step of our bungalow. And then it gathered together again. I really miss playing with mercury. In fact, I think it's illegal now.

My Dad would put us on the counter when we were 2 and 3 and so on while he made biscuits. We got to try to roll them out and cut them with the biscuit cutters or make funny shapes. They were such good biscuits. He still makes them.

7 is a bit young to chop an onion, but not too much. Certainly, a kid with decent fine motor control can do it by 9. But making gumbo is long and kinda boring.....no grand transformation like baking. Kids dig baking b/c the ingredients (dry, terrible tasting flour, pale sugar, butter) become such a radically different thing (brownies! Cookies! Cinnamon rolls!). So why not make a family favorite cookie, cake, or bread? Or ask the lil bugger what HIS favorite thing to eat is, and then make that.

As far back as I can remember I was always in the kitchen with my parents or grandparents watching. When they finally started letting me help I already knew most of the steps.

There's no such thing as too young to be in the kitchen.