– It smelled very foul. Mix with sea!
This was 10-year-old Martinus Amundsen’s clear first impression, when he and a dozen other Tromsø children entered the cooking contest and preparation of a three-course fish menu before Christmas.
Brave choice
Although “booked and excited”, “trembling Christmas classic” and “banana split with a splash of sea” may not be the most common dishes to be found on a classic children’s menu, this did not discourage either the young chefs or the organisers.
The theory and the experience are simple: Children who get to participate in cooking are more inclined to eat what they make. Also fish.
And at restaurant Skarven’s culinary theater it was the lutefish that got the main role.
A brave choice, some would say.
Believe in the cod
Organizer Marit Rein of Sjømatfest admits that they could have followed an easier path when they first had to promote the joy of fishing among children and young people.
Norwegian everyday spread is a Japanese delicacy and good luck charm
They could choose to offer a sushi course, for example – because many children and young people like sushi. Nevertheless, she is happy that the choice fell on a Christmas table with lutefisk as the main course.
– Through another project in upper secondary school, we have experienced that boknafisk and dried fish work very well with young people. It gave us faith that lutefisk would also work for an even younger target group, says Rein.
– It’s fun to eat food you’ve made yourself, said one of the participants after the session, which was led by professional chefs Marius Carlehed Jacobsen and Hans Markus Heiskel.
And Jacobsen was full of praise for the budding young chefs from Tromsø.
– All the participants were positive about the menu and eager to be given tasks and to contribute to the preparation. It was therefore a grateful group to work with. The approach to lutefisk is also quite ingenious towards children because there are so many side dishes with sweet flavors that appeal to younger palates, says Jacobsen.
Death at stake
Although Martinus had tasted lutefisk before, and did not quite get the taste for it, he gave the quivering Christmas classic a second chance when he got to help prepare it himself.
– It was actually good, was the convincing verdict.
And when the ten-year-old learned that the flounder are skrei that are out to spawn when they are caught and hung on a gallows, he was genuinely sad for the flounder.
– It was looking for love, but only found death!
More snot than fish
– It is always an extra pleasure to work with children, says Christine Kristoffersen Hansen of Sjømatfest, which works to spread the joy of seafood.
LUTEFISKFEST: – It is always an added pleasure to work with children, says Christine Kristoffersen Hansen (back) in Seafood Festival. Front: Beatrice Stein (10) and Martinus Amundsen (10) Photo: Daniel Berg Fosseng
It is needed, we believe, a recent survey carried out by The Norwegian Seafood Council. It shows that Norwegian children and young people eat far too little fish – much less than the Directorate of Health’s recommendation for fish for dinner two or three times a week, in addition to fish as a side dish.
Among the findings in the survey, we see that 35 per cent of children and young people eat fish less often than once a week.
Sweets and snacks, on the other hand, are eaten by the youngest many times a week.
Northern Norway in jumbo place
The findings vary by region, gender and age. Among other things, we see that 57 per cent eat fish for dinner once or twice a week.
Atlanterhavsparken Science Centre:
These children think the fish is a bit mysterious
Among these, Oslo children are the best in the class, while children and young people in Northern Norway are surprisingly at the bottom of the table.
In Oslo, 68 percent answer that fish is on the dinner menu once or twice a week. In Northern Norway, 54 percent answer the same.
Children and young people from Northern Norway nevertheless stand out among those who eat fish for dinner every day. In the north, five percent say they eat fish dinner every day, while the total for the whole country is two percent.
Role model
There are many nice tricks to get children to eat more fish.
according to Godfisk.no is it more prestigious to be served a special dish – such as pasta with salmon and pesto, cod burger or red curry with salmon – than to be served just “fish”.
Make sure there are no bones in the fish you serve, and feel free to experiment with skinless fillets.
Another tip is to lead as a good role model. “What you do, the children will also like to do,” says the Seafood Council.
