Kitchen tools for your little sous chef

My kids are more than eager to help in the kitchen, but there's only so much they can do with a big dull butter knife and a spoon as long as their arm. Fortunately, since discovering these cool kid-size kitchen utensils, our nightly dinner service has gotten much more efficient and kid friendly. Foodies everywhere are probably already familiar with Kuhn Rikon--heck, even I'd heard of them--but it was only recently that I discovered their Kinderkitchen line which applies smart Swiss design to kid friendly cooking tools. Unlike a few others that I've seen which are adorable but not too functional, the Kinderkitchen tools are both, making them safe for little ones who are determined to help you in the kitchen.

My oldest has been using the dog knife with teeth (pictured) which is smartly made with Japanese carbon steel but is made to cut food, not fingers. And I love the bird's eye open spoon, which is perfect for my littler two kids who are dying to help me mix cookies, brownies, and pancakes, but can never actually do anything but make a mess with my own wooden spoons.

I can't think of a better way to acclimate your kids to the kitchen environment at an early age. At this rate, I'm hoping they'll be cooking their own dinners by next year. -Kristen

Purchase the Kinderkitchen kids cooking tools by Kuhn Rikon at Chef's Resource, where shipping is free for purchases over $59. It's a little scary how fast I can make it to that amount over there.