Gino D’Acampo says parents who let their kids become fussy eaters are ‘morons’

Gino D’Acampo says there is ‘no such thing as a fussy child’

Parents who let their children develop fussy eating habits are “morons”, celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo has said.

The television chef told a podcast that it is “not possible” for children to become fussy eaters on their own, but blamed parents for not disciplining their kids enough.

Speaking on the Sweat, Snot and Tears podcast, hosted by Netmums, D’Acampo said: “When people talk to me about fussy children with food and ask me: ‘What do I think?’ I tell them there is no such thing as a fussy child. There isn’t.

“But there is a thing of moron parenting. By moron, I mean idiots. A child doesn’t grow up fussy, it’s not possible. It’s the parents.”

He explained that some parents “can’t be bothered to fight, they can’t be bothered to have the argument at the table, they can’t be bothered to see their children go to bed without having any food”.

D’Acampo, who shares three children with his wife Jessica, said if his youngest daughter Mia, nine, refuses to eat what’s on her plate during dinner time, she gets the same food for breakfast the next morning.

“Don’t eat the ravioli, it’s fine. So Mia would be at the table not eating anything,” he told podcast hosts Annie O’Leary and Wendy Golledge.

“If you’re not hungry because you aren’t eating the ravioli, that means you can’t eat anything. Tomorrow, instead of milk and cornflakes, what’s she going to find on the table?

“The same ravioli that was there last night. You only have to do it once,” he added.

“Of course they will eat it because what they don’t want is to have the same ravioli at dinner time.”

D’Acampo said he was not comparing children to dogs, but implied that the same training techniques could be used.

“You only have to tell [a puppy] off and pretend to smack him a couple of times not to do the wee on the floor,” he explained.

“Eventually, he’s not going to do the wee on the floor, he’s going to go outside.”

Two days before the podcast episode was released on Tuesday, D’Acampo posted a photograph of himself with Mia on Twitter, reading his cookbook ‘Gino’s Italian Family Adventure’ together.

He wrote: “I love it when my little Mia shows interest in cooking… Hopefully one of my kids will follow in my footsteps!”

D’Acampo has two older children, 19-year-old Luciano and 16-year-old Rocco.