Engaging children in cooking and baking has numerous benefits

Kitchen work helps with hand-eye coordination and fine-motor skills, and it also allows children to practice their number skills in a fun way by counting out the various ingredients. Photo: KELLY SIKKEMA/Unsplash

Dustin Gardner has mentored scores of young cooks in the 16 years he's served as executive chef of Casbah, an upscale Mediterranean restaurant in Shadyside, Pittsburgh in the Untied States. But it's safe to say the budding chef who tugs tightest on his heartstrings is his pint-sized daughter.

Gardner, of White Oak, and his wife, Lindsay – the two met while students at the former Pennsylvania Culinary Institute – have been cooking with three-year-old Ellie for as long as she's been able to crawl up onto a step stool at the kitchen counter. Which is to say before the youngster even celebrated her first birthday.