When should children stop eating “nursery food”? Should bar- and batmitzvah meals be burgers, fish and chips, schnitzel and pizza? Or should we be aiming higher and giving them a more nutritious and grown-up plate of food?
By early teens, the gastronomic repertoires of (very) young adults will have widely diverged. Some are still wedded to traditional children’s menus while others have more sophisticated tastes. Host families can end up catering towards the lowest common denominator.
Many caterers find that at first meetings the bar- or batmitzvah celebrant him/herself shows more adult tastes. “We had a boy recently who’s a real foodie,” says Celia Clyne. “He came up to our kitchens in Manchester and played around with the chefs in our kitchens, making his own food.”
Matt Rickard, of Food Story, agrees: “Often when we’re first meeting a child, it’s not uncommon for them to be foodie. Some of them are actually interested and would be more adventurous.” However, he says, that does not always flow through to their eventual menu choice.
Dinah Cohen, events manager for Arieh Wagner at the Sheraton Grand Hotel, also believes not all children want chips with everything: “We see plenty of more mature bar- and batmitzvah children who would rather eat what the adults are eating. They very often have eaten out a lot with their parents and have tasted a range of foods.”
But in most cases, even if their own child has a wider dietary range, the worry for host families is that the child’s friends will not eat “grown-up food’. “They want everyone to be able to eat,” says Cohen. So they invariably plump for the child-friendly option.
Rickard thinks we could and should be doing better: “It would be nice if the kids sat down and ate together, using cutlery to eat proper food, instead of running around and using their fingers.” He suggests options like mini steaks with vegetables, or chicken breasts with potato purée. “We did a barmitzvah earlier this year where the parents chose roast rib of beef with Yorkshire puddings and roast potatoes and the children ate the same. We’ve also done events where the children had a starter of beef carpaccio — which went down really well — or chicken katsu curry, which is actually popular at the moment.”
The reality is though, that if you are paying for 30 or 40 portions, you want the children to eat what is put in front of them. “Families play it safe, as there are still children at that age who want simple food. No one wants children to go home hungry,” says Simone Krieger of Krieger’s Kitchen.
And at the end of the day, it is a party. We wouldn’t expect to eat celery sticks and salad, so why should children not get to eat their favourite foods? That should not mean the children’s menu is substandard, though, say caterers, who emphasise that they put the same level of thought and care into the mini-diners’ meals as they do the grown up versions.
“The food doesn’t have to be sophisticated, but it should be good-quality. At an event where sometimes more than 50 per cent of the guests are children, bad-quality food would reflect badly on me. So even if it’s simple food, I make it all freshly, from scratch,” says Krieger. “Home-made chicken burgers with hand-cut chunky chips and Israeli salad, for example. And if we’re doing bowl food, we’ll pass around fish finger sandwiches, hot dogs and salt beef sandwiches, that the children (and adults) love.”
Adam Nathan also stresses that even the most simple menu should be executed with as much care as the adults’ food. “I make my own brioche buns, my own burgers and hand-cut chips. If we do schnitzels, we bread our own.”
Children often have a much smaller window for engagement before they tire of sitting and eating, so a hugely important ingredient of children’s menus is fun.
“Kids eat for about 3.8 seconds and then want to leave the table and do something else,” says Nathan, explaining this is a reason why hosts may decide “child food” is the safe option. “Everyone has a different priority for what they want from a party. As adults we all discuss what the food was like. In the main, that’s not a huge priority for the kids.”
He keeps young diners at the table longer by upping the fun factor with miniature portions of beer-battered cod and potato wedges in boxes lined with newspaper.
Clyne also serves burgers and fries, but tweaks the presentation to make it more entertaining for smaller guests: “We serve the burger on a board, with a mini bucket of fries, on top of a personalised paper mat with the name of the bar- or batmitzvah child on it. They love that. We also do a picnic box — a small basket with a handle and lid that can be filled with their meal. We set a corner of the venue aside for them to eat in.”
“We’ve just created a slider and (parev) shake, which has a real fun factor,” says Ben Tenenblat, who serves it with three sorts of fries — regular, Cajun and sweet potato. “We use individual cake stands to serve the children’s main courses; mini sliders on one level, deli platters with salt beef on the next and on the bottom, chips and dips. We also do freak shakes, which are incredibly popular at the moment and which are brought in with sparklers in the top. ”
Arieh Wagner has created a classic option to cater for every taste. Cohen says: “We do a dish that consists of a mini burger, mini hot dog and mini schnitzel, served with a portion of chips, raw or cooked vegetables and their own pot of ketchup. We do labels to personalise burger boxes.”
Tenenblat agrees certain styles of catering work better for a shared adult and child offering. “If we do a Brazilian barbecue for example, we’ll serve home-made sausages and steaks for adults alongside a slider and taco bar that children go for.” And all children seem to like sushi — “If we do a sushi bar, it’s three deep in children,” says Rickard.
Nathan says that in his experience, stand-up parties work better. “You can do more similar foods that both adults will enjoy.”
Consider a lunchtime party — crossover menus usually work well at lunchtime. “The vibe is different,” says Nathan. “We did a fish and vegetarian lunch recently, with platters of flatbreads with sour cream, guacamole, sour cream and salsas and the children and adults all loved it.”
As for sweet treats, everyone is talking about freak shakes, a milk (dairy or parev) shake topped with with every sweet treat you can think of. An Instagrammer’s dream. Also photogenic is the doughnut wall.
DIY sundae bars are also part of the fun trend — guests can load their ice-cream with sprinkles, sauces and sweeties. Generally they are set up for children, but caterers always need to make sure there is enough for the grown-ups to tuck in too.
Or what about a dessert catwalk? Food Story set up a catwalk-like, high and wide table, at which children were seated on high stools with their desserts. Waitresses walked the tables, strewing caramelised popcorn over the children’s puds as they went.
Crêpe stations are also a talking point — line up for a French pancake slathered with your favourite topping, from chocolate or salted caramel sauce, strawberries or ice cream.
And then there is flossing — not the annoying Fortnite dance, but the sugary confection beloved by anyone under 15 and many over that age too.
Dina Cohen of Arieh Wagner at the Sheraton Grand, says they sometimes serve children the same pud as the grown-ups, but topped with a cloud of pink floss to raise a smile.
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