3 . As most children have a natural interest in both cooking and screens, playing free cooking games online with your child may be an excellent way to introduce them to the world of food at an early age.     1    . They provide a number of developmental and educational benefits as well.

Cooking games for kids develop creativity.     2     by letting them experiment with raw materials, recipes, and preparation methods. Such games can help kids develop a growth mindset, creativity, and the freedom to make their own choices.

Cooking games can improve social skills. Most cooking games offer an in-built social space. For example, playing multiplayer or two-player games allows children to interact with others, solve problems in cooperation, and so on. This is especially convenient for those who have difficulty reaching out to others in the real world. Online games can help them practice their communication skills.     3    .

Cooking games boost confidence and independence. When kids take the initiative, finish a task, or follow directions correctly, they feel good about themselves and proud of what they’ve done.     4    , they are more likely to grow up with a feeling of confidence, responsibility and independence.

    5    . The act of cooking, whether virtual or in the real world, requires a lot of counting and measuring, which promotes the development of fundamental mathematical abilities. Additionally, they require kids to perform various kitchen tasks or read the recipes or lists of raw materials and then follow the directions, teaching them to read, and improving their vocabulary.

4 . It was a snowy day during the spring break when I walked into a great restaurant. In this blizzard weather, it was the only restaurant that remained open.

The restaurant has a long history in Hong Kong. Its owners, the couple, Peter and Michelle, have been running the restaurant since 2007.

“Things have changed a lot in the past 30 years,” Peter said. “Chinese students 20 years ago thought that a 70-cent bowl of rice was too expensive, but now a $20 meal is acceptable”. He also said that the new generation of Chinese students engaged with other students, bringing all their non-Chinese friends to visit the restaurant.

Peter takes great pride in his own cooking. He was curious about how the food was made and why particular foods or sauces had specific tastes. He chose to serve mainly Guangdong and Sichuan food at the restaurant, featuring the family-style Chinese dim sum or hot pot.

When I asked whether he would modify the taste of the dishes to suit the taste of most Americans, Peter said, “We are not like those American Chinese restaurants. We provide the genuine Chinese taste to our customers, and they will love it because it is delicious, and their taste will suit the taste of our dishes, not the other way around.”

“If I hear complaints from my customers, I will be so upset that I can’t fall asleep at night”, he said. “Luckily most of my favorite dishes received wide acclaim from my customers and it takes more than one person’s effort.”

He compares himself with the craftsmen in China who are proud of preserving ancient Chinese art and whose motivation is only on people’s enjoyment of their work and thought.

Such a spirit of craftsmanship has been remarkable and greatly valued in the past. The craftsman’s spirit with perfection, precision, concentration, and patience remains in Peter and his cooking.

5 . Three Cooking Myths

As a child, one of the unbreakable rules was “no swimming for 30 minutes after eating”. This was like a gospel(福音、信条), seriously not to be questioned. Turns out, there was actually nothing true about this “truism”. But for many years, children sat around, unhappily, awaiting the end of the 30-minute torture.

I only bring this up because there are a few kitchen truisms that I thought we might investigate, just for fun.

Previously, my first idea at mealtimes was     1     (eat) at a restaurant. I was eager     2     (try) new restaurants.     3     (dine) out was also a social activity, allowing me     4     (boost) the relationship with my friends. It didn’t change until last month when I came across a cooking app. There are a variety of recipes in the app     5     (choose) from, which offer     6     (detail) instructions so that others can follow them step by step. When I picked a popular recipe and gave it a try, I discovered it was not that difficult     7     (make) a simple and tasty dish. After a lot of practice, now I am good at     8     (cook) a couple of dishes. My plan is     9     (invite) my friends over at the weekend     10     (show) them my new-found skills.

9 . It’s funny—as a writer, it’s easy to share your knowledge, or your personal stories with an unknown listener of many. You think your friends and family may not read your articles. But as I began to talk more openly about Chinese traditions and food, I learned that they were interested, curious and really hungered for it. Their interest and curiosity grew and the culmination of their interest and curiosity was this past Spring Festival. They would like to spend the Spring Festival with me. It was an inconvenient Monday. I’d never had the Spring Festival when anyone but my father cooked.

I took the day off work in a madness of last-minute preparation. I drove 45 minutes out of town to a Cantonese BBQ shop where I bought a whole roast duck (烤鸭) and watched, fascinated, as it was changed into bite sizes. I shopped at a faraway international market like madwoman, looking for Chinese vegetables and other foods that would be new for my guests I called my dad, asking for six-second pointers on how to make dishes I’d never made. I texted him pictures of the sea fish I picked out, and the red clothing they threw on for luck.

In just a few hours, I cooked a dinner of 15 dishes for six friends who cared enough about me and my culture to come over on a cold winter Monday night to celebrate my tradition with me. We drank, ate and toasted the beautiful night. And that night, I felt what it was to be loved for my culture as well as our food.

10 . Whatever your tastes are, it is highly unlikely that many of you are using 3D printers to create your favorite meals. Still, anyone interested in the future of food can find technologists printing out snacks, from steaks to cakes, at the push of a button. Now laser cooking has arrived and it is adding an entirely new layer of gourmet (美食家) taste.

Columbia’s Creative Machines Lab team is hoping to build a digital personal chef to deliver taste, materials, and food to suit individual tastes. So far their experiments with chicken have created laser-cooked examples that have the same flavor as cooking, but use 50 percent fewer ingredients, and have the double content.

“In fact, our two blind taste testers preferred laser-cooked meat to the conventionally cooked samples, which shows the promise for this burgeoning technology,” said project leader James Blutinger. Scientists are working to promote this technology.

Creating software that would allow chefs to make their own designs—a Photoshop of food—is the next step. “We need high-level software that enables people who are not programmers to design the foods they want,” said group leader Hod Lipson. “And then we need a place where people can share digital directions as they share music.”

All of this could well change the way we think about and eat food. High on the list of positives is the fact that printed food can be healthier, lessen the environmental impact of food production—especially red meat—and cut waste.

Global food waste hit almost one billion metric tons in 2021. So future companies that turn food waste into tasty dishes and food decorations—like Natural Machines or Upprinting Food—are a welcome development. As food printing becomes more widespread, we may see instant printed and recycled meals as the dietary solution we were looking for.