Tasty: Best Children's Books for Kids Who Love to Cook

Cooking has become a very popular hobby for kids today. From quick snacks to colourful and complicated desserts, it’s a fun way for young people to learn new skills while being creative. Platforms like TikTok and YouTube are full of short, engaging recipe videos featuring ideas like mug cakes, pancake cereal, or inventive sandwiches that are easy to make at home. These videos make cooking seem simple, fast, and exciting, inspiring kids to experiment in the kitchen - and they’re just as fun to watch and share with friends.

Cooking is also a great way to learn about healthy eating, whilst they prepare meals and snacks kids start to understand what goes into their food. They can choose fresh ingredients, add vegetables, and make balanced meals, building healthy habits that can last a lifetime.

It is also so creative, you can experiment and make something unique every time. And it is a hobby you can enjoy in many different ways. Some kids like cooking alone because it lets them relax and focus. Others enjoy cooking with friends or family, turning it into a fun group activity where everyone works together and shares the food at the end.

Celebrity Cookbooks for Children

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver introduces little readers to cooking and food in a fun, hands-on way in Jamie’s Little Food Library. This beautiful designed board-book series blends lift-the-flap interactive design with simple recipes and playful language in a sturdy board book format, perfect for tiny hands.

Following their success on The Great British Bake Off many of the contestants have gone on to produce child friendly books with fun and imaginative recipes to inspire young chefs. David Atherton's My First Cook Book is a great first introduction to basic cooking techniques. Nadiya Hussain was the very popular winner in 2015 and has gone on to write a number of books including Nadiya's Bake Me A Story with sweet and savoury recipes, accompanied by stories retold by Nadiya all with a foodie-twist. Nadiya says “I bake with my children and I grew up with parents who are big cooks. My Dad always said that kids shouldn’t be scared of the kitchen. We forget that it’s a life skill, to be able to go into the kitchen and make something to eat.” And we loved Peter's Baking Party written by Peter Sawkins, the winner of the GBBO 2020. This is full of "fabulous recipe book for young star bakers, bursting with showstopping cakes, tasty bakes and hearty, homemade dinners!".

Books for our Youngest Cooks

Yum, Yum, Yum! is gorgeous board book collection of bright and bold books which introduce delicious and healthy foods to pre-schoolers. Turn the die-cut page and watch the foods appear - and each has wipe free pages perfectly designed to enjoy whilst eating.

Inspired by Julia Donaldson's creation, Gruffalo Crumble and Other Recipes is full of delicous foodie delights such as Fox’s Sandwiches, Scrambled Snake and the awesome Gruffalo Cake. The twenty four recipes are easy to follow and are brought to life by Axel Scheffler’s brilliant and familiar illustrations.

Cookbooks for Teens

For older chefs, Cool Kids Cook is an informative, fun and stylish cookbook with no rice crispy cakes in sight! The 50 easy-to-follow recipies in this guide will teach basic skills and be the springboard for a live-long love of real food.

One of the best things we can do for our teens is to set them off into the world knowing how to cook. Cooking Up a Storm: The Teen Survival Cookbook is the perfect companion - written by a teenager, for teenagers! You'll find the full whack of food in here. From snacks through to some full-on dishes that you can serve up to your family or friends.

Harrison Ward's Cook Out combines the joys of cooking with the great outdoors with some seriously mouth-watering recipes designed to be made over a camp cooker. Aka the Fell Foodie, Harrison presents impressive al fresco gourment cooking ideas, accompanied by advice on equipment and packing for your outdoor adventure.

Older readers can head over to LoveReading for more cookbooks, with special collections for Christmas Cooking, One Pot Dishes and Air Fryers.

Fun Fiction for Kids Who Love Food

These books feature both cooking and stories - the perfect recipe for a delicious page-turner.

Selina Brown, winner of the Queen’s Reading Room Medal celebrates food, culture and friendship through her books. My Rice Is Best brings rice and peas and jollof rice head-to-head in a hilarious and heartfelt showdown, all in an attempt to answer the age-old question: which rice really is the best?

Pete and his dad make the best pizzas in Accringham, and thanks to discovering a suitcase of incredible magic potions in the the attic they can also cook up some incredible spells. With extra toppings of fun, friendship, magic and surprises, Pizza Pete written by Carrie Sellon and illustrated by Sarah Horne is as irresistible as your favourite pizza.

Baker by day, spy by night, Alice Éclair leads an extraordinary life. Each of the Alice Éclair, Spy Extraordinaire books, written by Sarah Todd Taylor and illustrated by Beatriz Castro, can be read as a standalone adventure story as Alice, armed with her whisk, wits and will to succeed solves mysteries full of daring action and delicious cakes.

Read on for a selection of fact and fiction books for children and young adults that celebrate food and the art of cooking.