Tasty toys

Bam! You don't have to be Emeril Lagasse to know that Americans' interest in the culinary arts has soared in recent years. Now kids are getting swept up in the craze as parents discover that cooking can be a fascinating—and educational—form of kids' entertainment. Savvy toy retailers are catching on, and are seeking more food-safe, kid-appropriate, “real” cooking tools and kits to stock in their stores amidst their more traditional arts and crafts and science kits.

“For the most part, anything with food encourages mom or dad and the child to do something together,” says Teresa Neumann, the manager and buyer at Toy World, a 4,000-square-foot specialty store in Wyzata, Minn., with two other locations in the state. Neumann stocks a wide range of kids' cooking, baking and dessert-making kits (from pizza to hot pretzels to cookies) from Sassafras Enterprises, as well as nonstick silicone kids' bakeware from Toysmith. Toy World also has traditional pretend food and cooking play items from companies such as Learning Resources and Small World Toys.

Cooking is “a family activity. It's something you can do with the kids,” agrees Pennie Ungar-Sargon, national sales manager of Chicago-based Sassafras. “There's just a big surge of interest in cooking among children in general, and everybody tells us that kids love to watch the Food Network. Cooking is definitely entertaining. It's entertaining to watch, but it's also entertaining to actually do it. It's fun!”

Sassafras, which was founded in the 1970s as primarily a gourmet foods supplier, now distributes more than 40 food-prep kits in its kids' line (which offers packages like the popular Fairy Princess Magic cookie kit with fairy wand and color-changing dough for girls and complementary Wizard cookie kit for boys), along with cooking tool kits and apron sets and, separately, wooden toys, kids' bags and room décor. “We've got a very broad line now that ultimately came from the interest in kids' baking. Kid stuff in general is probably 80 percent of the company now. It really took over,” Ungar-Sargon notes. “The philosophy for our kid (products) is adult-quality real stuff made small for kids, and we try to find something that ties the customers into the kids and keeps it a family focus.”

Ungar-Sargon credits television shows Good Eats (for host Alton Brown's humorous take on the origins of ingredients and cooking customs) and Emeril Live! (“because he's boisterous”) with helping to interest children in cooking and cooking play. The company now offers its bestselling basic kids' toolkit (measuring cups and a kid-sized whisk, rolling pin, spatula, spoon and scraper) at the Food Network store.

Both Neumann and Diana Nelson, owner of Denver-based Kazoo Toys, an 11,000-square-foot specialty store, say they stock the Sassafras kits in their shops because they are affordable and include all the ingredients in one tidy package, making them an appealing buy for customers looking for birthday party gifts or activity kits. “Because they're all-inclusive, (customers) really don't need a whole lot more. People buy them for the family, or even play dates,” Neumann says. “You also have a lot of grandparents coming in to find things or an auntie that stops in looking for something fun to do for the weekend” with her nieces.

In Kazoo's expansive imaginative play area, Nelson also stocks a selection of pretend cooking items from makers like Alex, although she notes that her “real” cooking products “have a whole corner of their own.”

Cleveland-based Creativity for Kids offers one item for budding chefs that can cross over from its Let's Pretend category into real kitchens. The Cooking Up Fun kit includes measuring spoons, a chef's hat, apron, photo-frame cookbook with recipes (and space to write new ones), menus, and scented stickers.

“Part of the concept of our line is that it's not pretend. It's real stuff, its proper baking technique, so (kids) are really learning.” Ungar-Sargon says. “It's a toy in the sense that it's something for kids to have fun with, but just because it's a toy doesn't mean that it can't have educational value or food value.”

For the youngest customers, Winnipeg-based B-Bel's Kids in the Kitchen series, which is centered around a concept of color-coded tools and recipes, with projects that don't require knives, eggs or the oven, according to Sheri Stein, B-Bel's director of marketing. It may be the ideal starter set.

Shelley Betton, co-owner of A Child's Place, a specialty store in Winnipeg, agrees. “We just found [Kids in the Kitchen] an easy kit to sell because it's something that kids can do on their own, plus they definitely get a sense of accomplishment with it. It's been very, very successful for us.”

In addition to its original No-Bake Chef kit, B-Bel offers three other Chef kits: Party Cake, Healthy Snack and Juice it Up (for making no-blender smoothies and juices using special plastic tools). The company is also developing more elaborate kits, and is considering adding licenses to the line in the future.

Several other companies are also developing bake sets for kids. Among them is gourmet cookware manufacturer Silicone Zone, New York, which offers a Kids' Flexible Bakeware Set.

“We saw that there was [a] demand for functional cookware for children,” Silicone Zone CEO Michael Karyo tells Playthings. He says bright, fun colors combined with the function and performance of adult cookware and added safety features (like quick cooling times) are all key in kids' cooking products.

Kaiser Bakeware, Indian Trail, N.C., recently introduced a Kaiser Kinder Five Piece Set of baking pans and tools as well as brightly colored silicone baking cups, utensils for kids and paper baking cups decorated with such themes as lady bugs or dinosaurs.

Tara Steffen, vice president of Kaiser in the U.S., says the company got into the kid business “due to the high demand for family cooking.” Now, the company is looking into other children's products and has updated its packaging to be more kid-friendly.

Arts and crafts mainstay Binney & Smith, Easton, Pa., has also experimented in this area recently with its Crayola Creative Cookie Studio and Creative Brownie Treats kits. Additional kits—including holiday-themed items—are planned for the coming months.

“The Crayola Crafty Cooking Kits are a great fit for us because they let kids create and bake their own edible creations,” says Diane Baldovsky, manager, Crayola licensing. “We're selectively extending Crayola into the food category through licenses that offer something innovative to the marketplace.”