Cook Like A Boss: An effective co-created multidisciplinary approach to improving children's cooking competence.

Cooking interventions are emphasised as promising methods for changing children's food-related preferences, attitudes and behaviours. However, criticisms remain, including relatively weak intervention designs; lack of validated tools, and limited underpinning theory. Therefore, this research aimed to assess the effectiveness of a theory-driven co-created children's cooking intervention with underpinning rationale for the content, using a validated measure. 'Cook Like A Boss' was a one week, controlled cooking camp style intervention. Thirty two children aged 10-12 years participated. The intervention was developed using the Cook-Ed model for planning, implementing and evaluating cooking programs and was underpinned by Social Learning theory and Experiential Learning theory. The intervention content was developed in a co-creation process with the research team, a chef and the children. The underlying developmental skills required for the recipes were assessed to ensure they were age-appropriate. Children completed pre and post measurements including perceived cooking competence. Process evaluations were also gathered. There was a significant increase in perceived cooking competence after the intervention (P < 0.05) and a significant difference between the intervention and control group (P < 0.001). Additionally, process evaluations found the intervention to have high fidelity and dose received and that it was received extremely positively. The 'Cook Like A Boss' children's cooking camp was an effective multidisciplinary co-created intervention with a vulnerable group, e.g. children, guided by a model and underpinned by theory. The content was developed to ensure it was age-appropriate and achievable for the children. This approach could act as a template for future children's cooking interventions.

Guidelines for designing age-appropriate cooking interventions for children: The development of evidence-based cooking skill recommendations for children, using a multidisciplinary approach.

Cooking interventions have been criticised for their weak designs and 'kitchen sink' approach to content development. Currently, there is no scientific guidance for the inclusion of specific skills in children's cooking interventions. Therefore, a four step method was used to develop age-appropriate cooking skill recommendations based on relevant developmental motor skills. The steps include: 1) a critical review of academic and publicly available sources of children's cooking skills recommendations; 2) cooking skill selection, deconstruction and mapping to relevant motor skills; 3) grouping the cooking skills by underlying motor skills for age appropriateness to generate evidence based recommendations; 4) establish face validity using a two-stage expert review, critique and refinement with a multidisciplinary international team. Seventeen available sources of cooking skills recommendations were identified, critiqued and deconstructed and cooking skills mapped to developmental motor skills. These new recommendations consist of 32 skills, across five age categories: 2-3 years, 3-5 years, 5-7 years, 7-9 years, and 9+ years. The proposed recommendations will strengthen programme design by providing guidance for content development targeted at the correct age groups and can act as a guide to parents when including their children in cooking activities at home.