Why Nadiya Hussain Has Her Kids Cook Dinner By Themselves Each Week

Most kids’ involvement in dinner starts and ends with begging to lick the spoon. In one Bake Off winner’s house, the kids are the ones actually running the show.

Nadiya Hussain, who won The Great British Bake Off in 2015, has her three children take turns being fully in charge of a weekly family dinner, from planning the dish to plating it.

Here is how she turned her kitchen into a rotating cooking clinic for her kids.

A Rotating Dinner Shift

During lockdown, Hussain started handing her kitchen over to one child at a time, saying she wanted them to feel ownership over the space rather than just visiting it.

She wrote on Instagram that she considers the kitchen “the best room of the house” and hoped the extra time at home would help her kids really own it.

What Actually Ends Up on the Table

The results have ranged from her son Musa’s chicken and potato curry to a batch of sweet and sour chicken wings from her other son, each one photographed and shared once dinner was done.

Her daughter Maryam has used her turn to cook dishes tied to the family’s heritage, once making a radish and prawn curry as a way of connecting with relatives she does not get to see often.

Handing over a single weekly dinner does not mean Hussain steps out of the kitchen completely, but it does mean her kids get real ownership over a meal from start to finish. It turns out one of the best kitchen skills you can hand down is simply getting out of the way.