How celebrity chef and dad deals with his picky eaters

Grilled chicken and fresh asparagus. That’s what was on tap for dinner at our house last night. Asparagus as in “the dreaded asparagus.”

I was as nervous to break that news to our 13-year-old daughter as I was to face my own parents when I was a teenager breaking curfew. I knew it would be met with the same disapproving arched brow.

“If we limited our vegetable choice to things she liked,” my husband assured me, “we’d be having the same two vegetables night after night.” He definitely does not come from the school of being a short order cook for your kids. And to be fair, our daughter is a decent eater and taster. Still, I know parents across the land identify with the challenge of kids and food.

What a delight to find the land of challenged parents includes celebrity chef Jeffrey Saad. He first popped on your TV screen a few years ago during Food Network’s Next Star challenge. Now he hosts, “United Tastes of America” on The Cooking Channel.

He’s also a dad who took great pride in introducing all sorts of foods to his kids from the time they were toddlers. His kids had the coolest school lunches.

“I used to love to get up, make like a seared steak or I’d make this great egg salad with carmelized onions,” he told me. “And for years they loved it and they would brag to their friends.”

Sadly, all great things must come to an end. “Now, they are 15 and 12,” he said. “I had kind of a very emotional day last week because they said to me, ‘Dad, we just want peanut butter or bologna for lunch.’ And I was devastated of course.”

You think you have tough times with your kids? What’s a gourmet celebrity chef to do with his suddenly picky eaters? Turns out, the Saad family has a couple of rules that just might help your family.

“We have ‘The Two Bite Rule,’” Saad said. “ The first bite to get over your attitude; second bite to find out if you actually like it or not. And if you really don’t like it, at least you truly have tried.”

“And the second?” I asked, hungry for guidance.

“And the second thing I saw on a placard one day was, ‘There’s two choices for dinner tonight: Eat or Don’t Eat.’”

If you’re thinking, “Ooh, Jeff Saad does not play,” he actually does. He recommends getting kids to help with the food preparation, getting them involved and invested instead of just plopping something down on their plate.

And finally, ease up at least one night a week and let the kids pick. “I’ll say, like Wednesday night, anything you want, mac and cheese? You got it. Pasta with butter and cheese? You got it. I let them have their night so then it feels also like a trade-off, like OK, you get one night where you get to pick whatever you want.”

So how’s that working at our house? Two bites in, our daughter is very clear she does not like asparagus. But at least she tried. And she got up and made herself a green salad with sliced tomatoes. A pleasant dinner was had by all.

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