Santa's Little Helper: Gifts for kids who cook

We asked Times Food writer Amy Scattergood to, uh, cook up a list of gift ideas for the pint-sized chef in your life. Here's what she, uh, served up:

1) "Fanny At Chez Panisse: A Child’s Restaurant Adventures with 46 Recipes" by Alice Waters. Shop around, but we found it at Amazon.com for $14.

2) An immersion blender. Great, safe, convenient tool for kids with a big fun factor. Shop around, as prices vary.

3) Kid’s chef outfits (hats, coats, aprons). Shop around, but prices range from $9 to $25. Here's one site we like.

4) Colorful measuring cups. Teach basic measuring and math skills while you work on recipes. The cooler colors, the better.

5) Tongs, about $20 and up. Kids LOVE these; good for lifting up pasta, etc., as well as playing jousting games with and picking up mudpies.

6) Bento boxes. You can get these really cheaply by shopping around in Little Tokyo (under $10). Kids often like them so much they’ll actually pack their own lunches.

7) Cake decorating kits. Play with frosting while you work on fine motor skills. A rudimentary version is a stack of parchment paper, with which you can fold your own disposable piping bags. Great for cookie-decorating parties. Prices vary; here's one resource.

8) Ice cream maker. From about $50. Making ice cream from scratch is fun, but so is frozen yogurt, and kids love adding the ingredients and watching the stuff freeze (more active kids can try the crank-your-own version).

9) Cookie cutters. Inexpensive if you don’t buy copper. They’re not just for sugar cookies: Collect interesting shapes (animals, leaves, snowflakes, trains, etc.) and use them for making sandwiches for school lunches, canapés for dinner parties (that your kids engineer), pie decorating, etc. Shop around, but check out Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma, which has changing thematic sets.

10) Kitchen scale. From $30. More fun for budding math majors; also really fun because you can weigh out other stuff too, like crayons, ice cubes, leaves.

-- Amy Scattergood

Need more gift ideas? How about:

Santa's Little Helper: Gifts for your dog

Santa's Little Helper: Wine gear

Santa's Little Helper: Trainer recommeded exercise DVDs and books

Photo credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times