Want to get your kids interested in cooking but aren’t sure how?  Perhaps the answer is a video game.  Personal Trainer: Cooking is a “game” for the Nintendo DS, Nintendo’s handheld video game system that features a chef who will walk kids (and adults) through over 250 different dishes from around the world.  The game is part cookbook, part demo video that can teach anyone, no matter their age, how to cook some excellent dishes.

The game walks kids through each and every step of the process: it starts with giving a list of dishes needed, then moves on to ingredients.  Rather than just tell you what you need, it explains why each ingredient is important.  However, you may not have everything on hand for some dishes.  If you need to go shopping, all you have to do is use the DS’s stylus to tap a check box next to the ingredient.  The game will actually create a shopping list for you.  You can then take the device to the shops and check off ingredients as you purchase them.

Once you’re back in the kitchen, it’s time to begin cooking!  The chef will help you throughout the entire process, including offering instructional videos as needed.  But what if you end up covered in flour or something and don’t want to touch your game system?  Simple—the DS features a built-in microphone, and the game allows you to give the chef voice commands like “Repeat,” “Pause,” and more.

In addition to teaching you and your kids how to cook, Personal Trainer: Cooking also includes nutritional information like calorie counts.  It also ranks dishes by difficulty and preparation time, so you know which ones you should start with first or which dishes are best for your kids to make on their own.  Once they start learning how to cook with the chef, you’ll find your kids helping you in the kitchen every day without being asked.

Tags: chef, cookbook, Cooking, shopping list

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Tips and Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.