Top Chef Kids in the Kitchen

Before getting started, form your cooking teams. For birthday parties, aprons can make great party favors and help keep clothes clean. Each team should have a teen or parent acting as sous-chef, handling the heavy knife work and any stove use. If you need extra hands, ask babysitters for help. Depending on how many guests you're expecting, and their ages, feel free to form three teams of two or two teams of three — mix it up however will work best.

Instead of winging it like the pros, give your teams a game plan. Create cards with a simple recipe on them — main dishes and desserts work well. Teams should then pick a recipe to cook using the theme ingredient. For instance, if the theme is "eggs," teams might square off to cook Classic Cheese Omelet or Bacon and Egg Cups. A dessert-themed challenge could pit Indoor S'mores against Cozy Cocoa Rice Pudding for a chocolaty finish. By picking easy recipes with familiar ingredients, you can introduce your kids to new dishes and flavors in a fun way.

While kids can take turns judging each other's food, it helps to add an objective parental palate or two to the mix. Remind your little chefs that they're looking to impress the judges, so gross-out dishes with lima beans won't cut it. Even if a dish doesn't taste like Top Chef material, judges can award points for creativity, out-of-the-box thinking, and presentation. Can your kids think of a new way to serve classics like Macaroni and Cheese? To make judging easier, use two 10-point scales: one for taste and one for creativity. The team closest to 20 points wins.