Tue 14 Apr 2009 10:26 pm
Sabrina Tinsley of La Spiga, who recently did battle on TV’s Iron Chef, is taking on a more interesting challenge than Bobby Flay: Teaching kids to cook. She’s offering courses on how to make pasta (including a pasta dinner) from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on April 28, and again on May 26. Cost: $45. The class is for kids ages 6 to 14, and limited to 8 students per class. The only hook, to my mind, is that parents aren’t invited, so you have to bank on your children taking in enough information to make you dinner another night. (If you already know how to make pasta yourself, hopefully you’ve already invested the time to teach your kid for free.)
For class reservations email s.tinsley@laspiga.com or call 206-323-8881.
I felt fine bringing kids to the old Spiga, but the grand new space never struck me as a great environment for them, so I was glad to also see that Tinsley has introduced a kids menu (on the advice, she says, of 7-year-old daughter Mimi, who also drew pictures for kids to color). The menu includes the likes of “Grandma Ida’s” beef and pork meatballs ($8) and penne with butter and real Parmesan ($8), a piadina sandwich with smoked ham and pecorino ($5), and a mini Margherita pizza ($9). My favorite option: A dessert piadina with nutella on the side ($4).
And if you’re looking for a discussion topic, I want to know: Are you really going to spend $8 on a child’s entree? Those prices are not out of line with what I’ve seen at other good restaurants, but they start making a babysitter look more and more cost-effective.
When we took Iris to Poppy for dinner, her entree was the beef tongue and potato pancakes from the appetizer menu, which is $7.
The price of a child’s entree also includes the “intangible” cost of teaching him/her to be a social person in adult society — how to be in a “grownup” restaurant and enjoy it, without harming others’ enjoyment. It’s always been worth the cost for me, to know that my son is learning to be a pleasant dinner companion at whatever age.