Thank you for visiting the Step2 Creative Kids In the Kitchen Contest. Unfortunately, this contest is now closed.
Thank you for all of the creative entries and congratulations to our winners!
December 18, 2009
We’re excited to announce the three winners of the “Step2 Creative Kids In the Kitchen Contest.” It was a tough decision, but of the more than 1,500 entries we thought these three best embodied creativity, encouragement of creative play and originality. The panel of judges consisted of Barbara Beery, the author of 11 best-selling kids’ cook books and founder of the Batter Up Kids Cooking School and toy experts from The Step2 Company. Please check out the winning entries below for some creative inspiration before the holidays and thank you to everyone who participated. See you next year for more creative fun in the kitchen!
All You Knead is Love – Grand Prize Winner
The kitchen has always been a special place for me. When I was a little girl, my grandmother encouraged me to make-up recipes, to experiment with the spices, and to have fun. The only ingredient that you really need, she said, was love. Although the food I created wasn’t always edible, it always came from my heart and I learned a great deal about cooking. Today I play in the kitchen with my four-year-old daughter and I encourage her to get creative. What do these cookies need? I’ll ask. And we’ll put in dried cherries or chopped-up apples or lavender flowers. I let her take risks and I let her make the decisions. I still choke up when I ask her. Okay, what’s missing? Love, she cries, and reaches for the bowl to pat it with love. For us, the creativity is not just the ingredients or the lack of measurements; it’s the way we have fun doing it together. We sing new words to the song about the muffin man or roll, roll, roll, your dough gently on the board and my one-year-old drums along with his wooden spoon and plastic bowl. I want my children to feel free in the kitchen, not just to copy me or the words in a recipe but to follow their own heart in the joy and creation of cooking.
Saving the Arts in the Kitchen – First Prize Winner
Schools are cutting back on Arts programs, in favor of more testing. Ugh! So, to keep creativity alive, I like to turn my kitchen into a sculpture and painting studio, using ingredients that are edible so the fun doesn't end until they're licking their fingers and it's all gone! Block cheese makes a wonderful carving material, and cuts easily with plastic knives. Sliced cheese can be cut with cookie cutters to make their own creative designs on tortillas, which can then be melted ever so slightly in the microwave for a tasty snack. Vegetables can be carved and assembled to resemble animals, and people. Funny faces with lettuce hair, can be arranged on plates. Chocolate sauce, mustard, jam, raspberry sauce, etc, make wonderful paint to adorn bread-ball sculptures. They can write their name or messages with mustard squeeze bottles into their bowl of grits, or the morning oatmeal. They may be cutting back on the Arts at school, but our house we're cutting up, having fun and keeping creativity alive in the kitchen!
I'm a mommy, a wife, bring home the bacon and fry it up too! – Second Prize Winner
Promoting creativity starts with a good example. I am proud that eating out is a special occasion and not the norm for my family. Dinnertime strengthens our familial bond on a daily basis, and its preparation is part of it. That warmth and love promotes confidence in expressing one’s creativity, especially in children. As Cuban-Americans, the kitchen allows me to share my culture with my daughters from recipes to stories and even language as they grow their bilingual lexicon. The kitchen is where my grandmother taught me about life as well as food, and I, in turn, will do the same for my girls. My husband loves to cook as well and serves as good example of what a complete man can be. He takes advantage of the kitchen as yet another way to interact with our daughters, offering his cooking style and life wisdom. And yes, we actually prepare food as well. We cook all types of cuisine not limited to just Cuban or American fare. Having a diverse palate is one way of exploring other cultures. The kitchen is also a unique playground where all the senses are stimulated in concert. Not many activities can claim that. The real fun is using imagination to combine foods in varying ways to produce different effects. Playing with measurements, adding novel ingredients or changing textures are all creative exercises that have no limit. Creativity becomes fun as well as educational and is spurred on by both.