Bean Appétit - Cookbook Review

Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food

By Shannon Payette Seip and Kelly Parthen
(Andrews McMeel Publishing, March 2010)

Got a finicky eater who’d rather hurl the spinach from the high chair than eat her veggies? Shannon Payette Seip and Kelly Parthen, the co-owners of a cooking school and café in Wisconsin, have put their creative minds together to come up with a plethora of ways to get picky tots, grade-schoolers and older kids to enjoy healthy foods without making a fuss. For instance, put a face on your food! From recipes for mama mato! to pizza portraits and Eric Carle's "the very hungry caterpillar," (see image and recipe below) the authors’ dishes look almost too good to eat. They’re little pieces of art. The writing is fun and appetizing, too, with chapters titled "let it bean,” “peacasso,” “world peas,” and “pea party.” We also enjoyed the tips for interactive food games that involve writing, singing, brainstorming, "lip sinking," edible instruments and other fun techniques to get kids involved in the making, baking and taking of the foods we want them to eat. Bean Appétit is creative, obviously well thought-out and a dense labor of love. It's delightful, it's delicious, it's de-lovely, and we’re quite delirious from the great number of fun-tastic choices presented.

Reviewed by Sylvie Greil