There’s a Bearnaise in There: Play School Moves to the Kitchen

Photo: Courtesy of ABC

Recipetin Eats creator Nagi Maehashi, Mark Olive, Melissa Leong and Alice Zaslavsky are ready to talk teriyaki with tots and I (an adult) cannot wait to watch.

Like most childless adults, it’s been a minute since I last watched Play School, but I have fond memories of the Teds (both Big and Little), Jemima, Humpty and the gang.

So imagine my surprise to find out that, beyond its promise of having a bear in there and a chair as well, Play School now has a host of Australia’s best chefs and food personalities in a vividly coloured kitchen making a bona fide cooking show.

Play School: What’s Cooking pairs local chefs and presenters to cook for the kids, sing songs and buy parents 20-odd minutes of quiet time.

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Morgan Hipworth comes by to make watermelon pizza and banana-cauliflower ice cream. Recipetin Eats creator Nagi Maehashi popped by to make “roly-poly rice paper rolls”. Chef Mark Olive stepped out of the kitchen at the Sydney Opera House’s Midden to make warrigal green slice, while Alice Zaslavsky makes fritters and granola.

To see how it stacked up to the sultry suggestions of Nigella, the chaotic exuberance of Jamie Oliver or local hero Adam Liaw, I (at the big age of 27) tuned into an episode to watch Melissa Leong make something to sip and snack on.

Whereas Masterchef teases a guest chef and introduces them with aplomb, on Play School: What’s Cooking, the guest just happens to be walking by carrying ingredients. Leong brings a dragon fruit and, after we establish that the dragon won’t mind her using its fruit (and that eating it won’t make you breathe fire), Leong uses it to make muffins.

Every step has a song that will get stuck in your head, no matter what you do: “Everybody peeling, everybody peeling, just like this.” “Everybody mashing, everybody mashing.” “Everybody stirring, everybody stirring.” Play School is really an operetta; if an instruction can be sung, it will be sung.

We’re constantly reminded not to use the oven without a grown-up, which is a helpful warning notably missing from most cooking shows.

There are several dance and song breaks, story time and a trip through the magic windows, where some kids – who turn out to be skilled television presenters – take us to visit a dairy farm in Tasmania. I’m not sure where they find these toddler journalists, but they are amazing.

Mel and the gang then show us how to make a healthy green smoothie. I note that even though we definitely need a grown-up for the oven, there’s no concern about kids using the Nutribullet unattended.

Then it’s a trip over to the picnic rug, where the toys are hungry because they’ve waited a whole 26-minute episode to eat. Twenty-six minutes. That’s how long I’ve spent watching Play School in the name of research and I’ve been smiling the whole time. I can’t wait to see what we cook next week.

Watch Play School: What’s Cooking? on ABC iView

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