Curious Chef Children's Cooking Products - Review and Giveaway

I have a small, "curious chef" in my house -- my preschooler. At the slightest mention of cooking or baking, she's right there, pushing a chair next to the counter. My husband recently celebrated his birthday. He's not a huge fan of birthday cakes so we decided to make him a treat he really enjoys: Apple Crisp. This time my daughter excitedly retrieved her new Curious Chef kitchen utensils that we received for review (a professional, she also put on her favorite, special Ratatouille apron because that's what chefs wear). It was her first time trying the Curious Chef products out, and she proudly arranged them on the counter, excited to have her very own kitchen tools just like Mommy.

The Curious Chef product line is designed especially for children. The child-sized plastic utensils and accessories fit better in smaller hands and allow young children to assist in the kitchen. Colorful, sturdy and BPA free, the cooking products make cooking fun for kids. I'm also proud to report that they are produced by Tailor Made Products, a well-respected, Wisconsin based company specializing in houseware products.

We received the Curious Chef 3 Quart Mixing Bowl Set, 3 Piece Nylon Knife Set, 6 Piece Measuring Cup Set, and 6 Piece Measuring Spoon Set for review. The bowl has a snap on cover with a cap that doubles as a spoon rest and a green, non skid bottom. I always use glass mixing bowls and was impressed how much easier a plastic bowl is hold and lift up when dumping the contents out. (I also stole the bowl and used it for one of my potluck salads a week ago, but don't tell my daughter!) The nylon knives are made of sturdy plastic and have serrated cutting edges, blunt tips and, like most Curious Chef utensils, green grips on the handles.

I'm especially intrigued by the colorful measuring cup and spoon sets. The easy to read measurement numbers are color coded, so that kids could follow a recipe without being able to read (you could produce a recipe using colors and pictures to designate quantities and tool type.) Cooking is an excellent way to introduce children to mathematical and scientific concepts such as fractions and volume. It's a teachable moment!

Now, back to our apple crisp. I used the size nylon largest knife and quartered the apples...the plastic knife sliced right through those entire apples! My daughter used the smallest nylon knife to chop up 6 apples into small chunks for our Apple Crisp. She put the chunks into a measuring cup and then dumped the cup into the large mixing bowl. Once we finished cutting apples we used the measuring cups and spoons to measure out the rest of the ingredients. My daughter demonstrates cutting apples in the YouTube video below.



The apple crisp turned out beautifully and my daughter proudly told her daddy that she made all of it pretty much by herself. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures and we ate all the apple crisp before I photographed the finished dish! My daughter (and son) will continue to enjoy helping out in the kitchen using Curious Chef products.

For more about Curious Chef and to view their new line of 49 products, visit their website at www.curiouschef.com. The
26 Pc Holiday Cookie Kit would make a great gift for the upcoming holiday season! (I'm considering ordering the cookie cutters for my kids. We need a Ginger Bread Man!)

Curious Chef has kindly offered to give away an 8 Piece Cutlery & Serving Set to a Brimful Curiosities reader.

To enter, leave a comment relevant to this post.

• For contact purposes, if you are a non-blogger or your email is not accessible in your blog profile, please leave a valid email address within the comment section.
• Contest is open to US and Canada
• Contest ends on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 11:59 PM CST.
• Winner will be chosen at random

Four ways to gain extra entries (Maximum total entries is 5 - leave a separate comment for each entry):
1st extra entry: Visit Curious Chef and leave a comment with the name of a kitchen tool or gadget in the Curious Chef line that interests you.
2nd extra entry: Follow Me! or subscribe by email or RSS reader
3rd extra entry: Blog about this contest then post your link in the comment section.
4th extra entry: Follow me on twitter (iambrimful) and tweet about the contest.


Thanks to Curious Chef for this review opportunity and for providing free cooking products for my family to review. (View my full disclosure statement for more information about my reviews.)