Back to school cookin’

Let’s Eat: Recipes for Kids Who Cook
by DL Acken and Aurelia Louvet

Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2023
$40 /  97817711514132

Reviewed by Valerie Green

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If you have been searching for a cookbook for your children, Let’s Eat – Recipes for Kids who Cook by DL (Danielle) Acken and Aurelia Louvet, is the one for you.

These two authors have produced a charming, colourful book that is easy to read and understand for kids of all ages. Children will “soon advance from quick after-school snacks and summer picnics to breakfasts in bed and full-course family dinners.”

At the beginning of the book, Acken and Louvet give the basics of cooking before you start. They describe the tools needed in your kitchen, followed by techniques defining the meaning of words used in recipes, and then emphasizing the necessity of having all your ingredients at hand before you even begin on a recipe.

The first chapter “Learn These First” describes how to cook eggs, bacon, mashed potatoes, pasta, rice, a roasted chicken, a salad dressing, and even how to make bread. For teenagers, heading to college or university and living in apartments away from home for the first time with perhaps only a microwave oven at hand, this basic knowledge is essential. They will survive!

The “Rise and Shine” chapter gives a variety of healthy breakfasts to start the day from smoothies and granola bars to muffins and omelets.

The authors have not omitted the importance of eating your fruits and vegetables in the “Keep It Fresh Chapter” that includes many tempting ideas for children to try.

The “Make it The Main Event!” chapter offers recipes from devilled eggs and coconut shake ‘n’ bake to sticky soda pop ribs and nachos, not forgetting the essential burgers along the way.

I particularly enjoyed the “Pop It in a Pot or Pan” chapter containing many delicious recipes for meals cooked together in one pot such as chili con carne, mac and cheese, chicken pot pie and the good old-fashioned staple, shepherd’s pie. The sheet pan dinner at the end of this chapter will be especially enjoyed by youngsters.

No meal is complete without dessert and this book provides a wide variety of choices from oat cookies and sugar and gingerbread cookies to pound cake, pumpkin pie, milkshakes and fruit sorbet. The authors have even included a recipe for how to make a birthday cake.

Although these recipes and cooking tips will prepare children for the future, they will also be enjoyed by children still living at home from seven to seventeen as they experiment in the kitchen with mom, dad, or their grandparents. I know my own two grandchildren will enjoy experimenting with these recipes.

All the tips and recipes have been tried, tested, and enjoyed by the authors’ own children Chloe and Felix, and Caitlin, William, Georgia, Charlie, and Alice. The authors also pay tribute to Alex, Elsa, Iris, Leo, Macy, Marshall, Morgan, Naraya, Nola, Patrick, Rory, Ryder, Selena, and Winston, who all participated in the book in some way.

Let’s Eat – Recipes for Kids Who Cook is also especially eye-catching with exceptional, bright, glossy illustrations which I’m sure children will enjoy as they ensure that their attempts look like the illustrations.

The two authors live on Salt Spring Island. Danielle (DL) Acken is an international food writer and photographer who also spends part of her time in London, England. Aurelia Louvet is a dedicated home cook and food stylist and has lived around the world.

Beautifully produced with a comprehensive and large index, you will not be disappointed in this book. It’s the perfect choice for potential school-aged cooks.

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Valerie Green was born and educated in England, where she studied journalism and law. Her passion was always writing from the moment she first held a pen. After working at the world-famous Foyles Books in London (followed by a brief stint with MI5 and legal firms), she moved to Canada in 1968 and embarked on a long career as a freelance writer, columnist, and author of over twenty nonfiction historical and true-crime books. Hancock House recently released Tomorrow, the final volume of The McBride Chronicles (after Providence, Destiny, and Legacy). Now semi-retired (although writers never really retire!) she enjoys taking short road trips around BC with her husband, watching their two beloved grandsons grow up and, of course, writing. [Editor’s note: Valerie Green has recently reviewed books by Carly Butler, Daniel Kalla, John Delacourt, Laurel Dykstra, Andrea Warner, and J.T. Siemens for The British Columbia Review.]

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-25: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, Maria Tippett, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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