Commando Dad: How cooking with the kids can be a fun military mission
Ex-Commando-turned-childminder Neil Sinclair gives tips on how to teach kids to cook. Lisa Salmon reports
Many dads are a dab hand in the kitchen – but others are unfamiliar with the territory, especially if they want to involve their kids in a cooking mission.
So Neil Sinclair has marched in to give other dads (and the rest of the family) a military-style helping hand on the cooking front, with hisis new book Commando Dad: The Cookbook.
Sinclair is a former Commando who, after clearing minefields in Iraq and tracking drug traffickers in the jungles of Belize, embarked on a radically different career when he trained as a childminder and became a stay-at-home dad to his threee kids while wife Tara worked.
“I’ve been a Royal Engineerer Commando, PE teacher, security guard at the UK Mission to the UN in New Yorkork and a PCSO in the Metropolitanitan Police,” he said. “But by far thehe most demanding job to date is as stay-at-home dad to my kids.”.”
As well as looking after his children – Samuel, who is now 18, Jude, 17, and Liberty, 14 – Sinclair has written the Commando Dad series of books, which treat parenting as a military exercise, refer to the kids as “troopers” and describe each acquired skill, from changing nappies and potty training, to preparing food, as a “mission”.
Sinclair’s latest sortie, The Cookbook, teaches dads and their young troopers basic culinary skills like mashing, sifting and kneading (with Mission Accomplished certificates at the end of each one), and gives smart food shopping tips, before including recipes ranging from The Basics, like tomato sauces and biscuits, Meals in Minutes like omelette and prawn stir-fry, and hearty crowd-pleasing Classics
including roast beef and andcornedbeefhash corned beef hash.
But does Neil follow his own advice and cook for his family?
“I do a fair bit of cooking at home,” he said. “I took the opportunity during lockdown to perfect my bread-making skills. However, if you ask other family members, it’s still a work in progress.”
Here Sinclair gives his militarystyle tips for dads preparing food with their young troopers in the cookhouse:
Dads lead by
1Commando
example Want your troopers to eat healthy, nutritious foods? Then you need to do the same. It’s never too early to start building good eating habits for your troopers, or too late to start improving your own. Once the food’s been prepared, always aim to sit down as a unit and enjoy it together. That way you can enjenjoy the food and each other’s company, while providing a perfeperfect opportunity to practice good ttable manners. 2Allow 2Al You’lYou’ll always need more time than you think, so don’t embark on a cooking sortie when youyou’re against the clock to get somsomething on the table. HHaven’t we all foundnd coocooking something new alwalways takes a lot lolonger than the recipeipe susuggests? It’s becauseuse wwe’re not familiar wwith the process andnd haveha to take it one slow step at a time. Now imagine thathat and it also beingg thefirstthefirst timetim you’ve held a potato peeler, let alone used one. I always double the amount of time and see how I get on. Remember if you get dinner cooked early, it can always be heated up later. 3Cooking Planning and preparation prevents events poor parental performance, so make sure you know what everyone’s doing (there are plenty of jobs for everyone, from measuring to stirring the pot and everything in between), and that all
plenty of time for culinary cu sorties missions require good planning
the ingredients and equipment are readily accessible. Then expect, and ideally embrace, the inevitable spills, mess and slip-ups.
The mission is for you and your troops to work together in high spirits and have an edible meal at the end of it. Nothing will ruin the mission quicker than a Commando Dad getting stressed and the troops will be less likely to follow you into battle next time. Long after you’ve forgotten the cleaning up you’ll remember the fun you had cooking together.
4Encourage troopers’ natural curiosity
This isn’t just about teaching kids the basics, such as mixing, mashing, scrubbing and cutting, fun though it is, but also allowing them to use their senses to engage with the whole experience. With your permission, let them taste, touch, smell and talk to you about how food looks and how it sounds (oh yes, your troopers are going to take food to another dimension – food you may previously have thought of as silent will suddenly be “squeaky”, “snappy” or “squelchy”, for example).
The “permission” element is key – your troopers must know they need to ask, or be invited by you, to taste food while preparing it. I’ve found a trooper who has helped to prepare food in this way will at least try it when it’s cooked.
5Cooking missions can be dangerous
The cookhouse is a potentially dangerous environment and, when it comes to safety, there’s no substitute for your close supervision. Don’t think this only applies to sharps or heat; I learned this lesson early when my son slipped on a teaspoon he’d dropped on the floor a ffew seconds earlier, and I hadn’t pickpicked it up. It’s also important to dress for fo the job – aprons will keep troopers’ tr clothes clean (and they’ll th love to wear them), tie back ba any long hair, don’t allow any an loose clothing, roll up loose loo sleeves and make sure feet fee are protected with sensible foo footwear. hand hygiene is a culinary must-have Wash Was your hands properly. We now know more than we ever thought thou we’d need to about the proper prop way to wash our hands and wwe must use that same thoroughness thoro before and after handling handl food (especially meat, fishfish, egeggs, fruit and vegetables). This, together with cooking and storing food properly, will help prevent food poisoning and any negligent discharges from you or your troops.