‘Healthy Recipes by Little Chefs’: mother–child co-cooking for social skills and food literacy

Home–preschool connections and shared everyday routines support young children’s social development and emerging food literacy. This qualitative single-case study in a public preschool in rural Türkiye examines Healthy Recipes by Little Chefs (HRLC), a 5-week mother–child co-cooking programme involving 10 preschool children aged 48–60 months. HRLC bridged classroom and home practice through joint healthy cooking activities. Social skills focused on responsibility and task adherence, sharing and cooperation, and emerging self-expression through presentation. Food literacy encompassed ingredient recognition, healthy/less-healthy distinctions, simple substitutions, and active participation in preparation. Data comprised video-assisted classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with children and mothers, and a teacher-researcher diary. Inter-rater agreement was acceptable (weighted κ ≈ .70). Engagement was high across interest, understanding, communication, and application. Sharing and cooperation were consistently strong; presentation-related self-expression more often received partial ratings. Children enjoyed the hands-on work but noted challenges including tiring steps, scheduling, and heat safety. Mothers reported clearer food distinctions, small ingredient swaps, and greater child involvement; they found the programme feasible and enjoyable. HRLC offered a practical, developmentally appropriate routine for building responsibility, sharing, and emergent self-expression. Presentation and narration skills may benefit from light, timely scaffolding, such as gentle teacher guidance and prior modelling.