The Muddy Chef

Penny Whitehouse

Emma Bear

Wild Dog, 2022

48pp., hbk., RRP $A24.99

9781742036380

Across Australia, and particularly in NSW, the one thing that there is plenty of right now is MUD. And kids who want to play in it. 

So this is a timely release that encourages children to play outside and make mud cakes, although these are quite fancy using all sorts of natural ingredients and with names like unlickable lasagne, mud and seed cupcakes and nature’s nachos!  Set out like a traditional recipe book, beginning with setting up the mud kitchen and stocking it with the appropriate utensils and ingredients, each recipe is based on a familiar food item with step-by-step instructions on how to make it, including a photo of the finished product. 

Designed to get children to play outside rather than necessarily developing their culinary skills – there are warnings about NOT eating what is created- as well as following the suggestions in the teachers’ notes  to entice children away from screens and out into their natural environment, this could also be an engaging way to introduce them to procedural texts and all the concepts and vocabulary of measurement, time and sequencing that go with those. 

Certainly something different to share with your parent body.