Is the best way to teach a child to really cook to let him prepare a weekly family meal? February 1, 2012, 10:28 am A friend told me last night that she wouldn't consider her 13-year-old to have "come of age" until he could, among other things, make a mayonnaise. I'm sure Leslie Kaufman would approve. As she describes in the Dining section today, her two sons - aged 10 and 14, each cook dinner once a week - a full dinner, with as little help and oversight as she can muster. I'm inspired. My children cook with me (in theory taking weekly turns as "dinner helper," although we're inconsistent about trading) and on occasion without me, as when their beloved babysitter lets them play "Chopped," a game based on the television show where chefs must create dishes based on a basket of mystery ingredients (my 5-year old on some sort of fried cookie dough ball he and his older brother created during a round yesterday: "Sam wouldn't eat it but I tried it and it almost tasted good!"). But it never occurred to me to try to turn their interest into something useful. I like Ms. Kaufman's advice: Encourage planning, keep it simple and amend recipes with cooking tips rather than hovering with advice. And I know that letting go of control in the kitchen would be my biggest challenge. But like my friend, I think everyone should know how to make a mayonnaise, or at least a meal, before they leave their childhood kitchen. And I suspect that being thrown (with supervision) into the proverbial fire of meal planning, timing and all that goes along with coming up with a family dinner is by far the best way to learn. And like Ms. Kaufman, I'm happy to do the dishes.