Knowledge Base > Char Nolan & Dr. Reshma Shah - Picky Eaters

Char Nolan & Dr. Reshma Shah - Picky Eaters
This event was on
Tuesday, July 08, 2025 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern
Join Rouxbe Instructor Char Nolan and Dr. Reshma Shah for an engaging and informative live event focused on one of the most common parenting challenges: picky eating. This special se… Read More.
Question:

Can you suggest any crazy names for recipes that might intrigue my granddaughter and her cousin and get them to try more foods?
— Anna Marie Trotman
Answer:
It's so interesting 'cause they did a, um, they did a study at Stanford, uh, at university, at the dining hall, and they did this exact thing of what she's talking about, which is like giving the food an appetizing name. So instead of just like, um, carrots with cumin, you could call it spiced Moroccan carrots or something like that, you know, uh, I'm not very clever at coming up with names, but I think adding a little bit of zest to the name of the food, um, can definitely make it more appealing. And I think, you know, uh, I would use the language of the kids and the shows and the books and the things that they're reading, um, to try and extract those words that would really resonate with them. Um, and obviously it's gonna be very age dependent. I don't know if her granddaughter is, um, you know, like younger age or more adolescent. I think you wanna obviously choose appropriate names. But yeah, I'm all for whatever you can do to make the food to sound and taste more enticing, um, is always a good idea, I think for young kids. Uh, when I teach live classes in the city, and, uh, Dr. Sean and I both, uh, have a relationship and fondness for the Charlie card. And as you know, I work at a Charlie cart, which is the Kitchen on Wheels in the South Philadelphia portion of Philadelphia. And when I worked with children, for example, uh, one time I cut carrots up, uh, in little Spears, uh, and I said, well, what should we call this? And young children like to, you know, use sticks and water guns and things like that. And they were like, oh, they're gonna be carrot spears. And everyone ate the carrot spears and even children who said, I don't like carrots, ate the carrot spears. So also letting children think of some creative names as well is, uh, another good idea. Um, that was a great question, and I'm sure that your, your granddaughter and, uh, your her cousin will come up with some very creative ideas for you as well.
