Cooking with Kids: Baby Food Blender
If you're into gadgets and looking to make your own baby purees, Williams-Sonoma is now selling the Beaba Babycook.
Pronounced "Bay-OBB-uh," the device has been popular for several years in Europe and is now available in the US. There's a video on the Williams-Sonoma site showing how it works. It's basically a mini-chopper than can steam food before you puree it. The industrial design is tops—with chubby curves and lime-green trim, it looks like a dollhouse accessory, albeit with a sharp blade.
I'm torn on the Beaba. On the one hand, I've always maintained that there's no such thing as baby food and babies can eat chopped or pureed adult food with no trouble. Plus, the Beaba costs $140. On the other hand, I love gadgets, and this thing is so cute! In fact, if you don't have a baby but feel the need for something in your life that is small, adorable, and noisy but not especially useful, this could be just the ticket—and it's much cheaper than an actual baby.
To be fair to Williams-Sonoma, there's a lot of great stuff on their wsKids site, including a weekly family menu planner, featuring recipes for just the kind of food (halibut with salsa verde, pho, osso buco) I used to serve my daughter when she was a Beaba—I mean baby. Now that she's four and likes to help out in the kitchen, I'm ordering her some of these tongs.
About the author: Matthew Amster-Burton lives in Seattle. His work appears frequently in the Seattle Times and Seattle magazine. He also maintains the blog Roots and Grubs. His favorite food is pad Thai.
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4 Comments:
I agree that it satisfies a need in me to have cute, well-designed things, but I mean REALLY NOW! It seems like the longest you would use this for is four months, and it really doesn't take that much more effort to just mash or puree food any other way. I have a ten-month old and, lemme tell you, he's already turning up his (tiny and cute) nose at pureed food.
mincemeat at 1:53PM on 04/28/08
Trouble is, it's $139.99 and a bit expensive for maybe 3 months of use. Bigger issue - the Container is made of Polycarbonate!
Yep, that's BPA to you and me. BPA is a big problem especially when plastics are heated. Why would anyone want to use this to cook food for their baby?
janine35 at 1:55PM on 04/28/08
Ah, yes. Perfect for the parent who cares enough to make their own baby food, but isn't quite smart enough to realize that they would be steaming the food in PLASTIC. Gotta love that one.
sarahbeam at 3:20PM on 04/28/08
sweet! i love it. it's like a cheaper, smaller thermomix for the junior ferran adria set! i might have to get it just to experiment.
dmarina at 1:10AM on 04/29/08