During his 20-year tenure as executive chef of eight restaurants, including Toby's, in Miami, and Tra Vigne, in the Napa Valley, Michael Chiarello was named chef of the year by both Food & Wine magazine and the Culinary Institute of America. He has hosted television programs on the Food Network, Fine Living, and PBS, and has authored several cookbooks, including Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking.
Chiarello is also the founder of NapaStyle, a retailer of specialty lifestyle products, and proprietor of the Chiarello Family Vineyards, which create small-production wines from sustainable vineyards in Napa Valley. He is currently partnering with Ferrero in its efforts with Share Our Strength, a nationwide organization committed to fighting childhood hunger. Chiarello kicked off SWEET, the dessert-party, kick-off event to the New York City Wine & Food Festival.
Q: Do you cook for your family?
MC: I do. We do dinner every night. The first three girls had dinner often at my first restaurant. Because I was working at the restaurant, the meal we got to have together at home was breakfast. Then they would walk by the restaurant after school and have snacks and cook with me. School season was quiet at the restaurant, so it was a lot of fun.
Now I have a new little boy and a different life and a different day job. We have a company, NapaStyle, that my wife and I started. I get to be home for supper.
Q: How do you get your family to participate in cooking?
MC: My son cooks with me. He first would sit in the kitchen in his Baby Björn, then in a backpack peeking over my shoulder. Now he sits on the center island with all the mixing bowls and a little apron. He pulls out every whisk and implement. We play pick-up-sticks with boxes of pasta. In the summer, we run outside to the garden to grab fresh bay leaves. We go mushroom-foraging together and go pouncing around the hillsides, picking wild greens and watercress. We have a small winery, and the kids used to get out of school and come check on the grapes to taste if they were ready, and chase rabbits around. We pick what's ripe from the garden for dinner, then go to the store to supplement.
I always found that if kids cook with you and are helping with the ingredients, they are less likely to spit out the green stuff. I was a single dad for a while, and I would take my youngest girl to the store with me. She would pick and choose, and that's how we would make supper.
As a dad, when I was looking for things to do with my kids, sitting on the floor with a bucket of Barbies wasn't on the top of the list. We would find fun things to do together, and cooking can be just that. By making it part of the day rather than a chore, you get a chance to celebrate one another along the way.
Q: What are your top tips for getting kids involved in the kitchen?
- Give them something to do. When we are making pancakes with our 2-year-old, Aidan, he gets his own bowl and spoon so he can feel like he is participating.
- Let them make a mess—but a controlled one. Enough so it's fun, but not so much that it stresses you out while you are making dinner.
- Make the kitchen fun. Put pots and pans and toys at kid level in the kitchen.
- Take excursions. Plan trips so the kids know where the food comes from. Trips to farms and farmers' markets can inspire kids to create a garden to grow on their own.
Q: What is your family's favorite dish?
MC: Pastina soup is a crowd pleaser every time. The kids have a big age range, and all of them love the soup. It also has sentimental value, because it was the first solid food for each of them. It has little teeny round pastas and chicken and vegetables. That is a mainstay to have around, because it makes it through dinner and a couple of lunches. As parents, we are constantly thinking, If we are cooking something tonight, what can it be tomorrow?
Kids also love making pizza—with the stirring of the yeast and watching something grow, they get a little science at the same time. We have a fire pit outside, and my 16-year-old and her friends build the fire, and then we give them things they can grill and have for supper. It is a way to be involved with them and give them their space at the same time.
