This is a subscriber-only article
For some kid-friendly food fun, you can visit The Cool Food School’s stand at this year’s National Ploughing Championship.
Founded by Deirdre Doyle, The Cool Food School has been in existence for five years, now.
Inspired by her three children, Deirdre created the school as a way of promoting healthy eating in a fun and interactive way kids can respond to. Through her work, she travels all over the island of Ireland to schools, preschools, parties and festivals to promote fun and from-scratch cooking which is kid-friendly.
“I have a background in hotel and catering, so food has always been important to me,” she explains.
“When I had my kids, I thought they’d eat what we eat – but I quickly discovered that’s not the case! There’s this whole market devoted to ‘kids’ food which is really just dumbed-down food, so I decided to re-train as a health coach and begin educating kids about food.”
Deirdre’s goal is to make food as fun as possible for children to help overcome cases of neophobia, which is a fear of new foods. If this sounds like your child, you’ll be relieved to hear that plenty of kids have this phobia, at first.
Restricted diet
“From the ages of 18-24 months, it’s very common and a normal part of development,” Deirdre says. “But parents might go, ‘Oh no! They’ve stopped eating!’ and they’ll give them things they know they will want to eat, but then they kind of fall into a trap and the child’s diet becomes more restricted.
“My goal is to bring foods to kids which are healthy and to make them fun and interesting – [for example] tasting three different types of apples to see if they all taste the same.”
On any given day, Deirdre might be in a different part of the country. She was recently at Cork on a Fork, the Tullow Show, and did events in Dundrum and Belfast.
She says she enjoys teaching younger aged children, between the ages of three and five. She does a lot of sensory-based food education which catches their imaginations.
“We might make an ‘apple donut’ [made from an apple slice] and add a frosting with cream cheese, maple syrup and cinnamon. We’ll talk about maple syrup – where does it come from? We’ll toast pumpkin seeds and they’ll crack and pop, so we get everyone to close their eyes focus on the sound.
“Then we do the same thing with smell, with toasted coconut. I’ll do a whole class about food listening and I’ll bring in ear protectors and give a selection of food – a carrot maybe and a banana – the ear protectors amplify the sounds in your head and the kids absolutely love it.”
This will be Deirdre’s first time at the National Ploughing Championships and she is really looking forward to it.
Aside from sharing the story of her business with attendees, she will also have a variety of products on sale. This is the same line of products she sells on her website. They include safe knives and peelers for kids, reuseable snack and sandwich bags, and her own cookbook, Chop, Cook, Yum. thecoolfoodschool.ie
SHARING OPTIONS: