‘Puffed pork rind and gherkin ketchup’: Kids’ food is growing up

Michelin-starred chefs are trying to change the way children eat, writes Clare Finney

Big kid: Tom Kerridge shows off his tiny tasting menu ( Mikael Buck/Uber Eats)

It looked like a publicity stunt and it trended like a publicity stunt. But however you feel about Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge’s decision to launch the free “tiny tasting menu” for children last month, there’s no denying the dismal statistics which prompted the move.  

According to Censuswide, who conducted a poll of 1,000 families across Britain, 84 per cent of parents struggle to get their children to try dishes with new ingredients. Only 24 per cent of parents of children aged 6-14 would describe their children as adventurous eaters, and a sorry 20 per cent of parents said their children preferred pre-packaged food over freshly made. Professing himself “surprised to see how few children are adventurous when it comes to trying new foods” Kerridge created a five-course menu “that will hopefully help parents to introduce new flavours”.

Quite how it went down, of course, we will never really know. For my own part, it reads like a hit list of foods my younger self was most averse to. Puffed pork rind and gherkin ketchup, Berkswell blue and truffle “cheese toastie”, cured salmon, Avruga caviar and spinach tart and BBQ beef brisket with smoked mashed potato, salted anchovies and caper butter – all sound delectable now, but they are hardly what I would call children’s foods.