Interview with Tyler Florence

Though he races around the country serving up alternatives to fast food as the host of The Great Food Truck Race, Tyler Florence slows things down when it comes to feeding his own kids. The Food Network veteran and father of three — Miles, 14, Hayden, 4, Dorothy, 3 — is making it easier than ever for parents to cook healthy, veggie-rich meals for their kids. I sat down with the chef to discuss his new family cookbook, Start Fresh: Your Child's Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating, and learned a little more about his one family meal concept. Here are some more excerpts from our conversation:

On why he's making children's food his new mission: If you think about most baby foods, at 33 cents a portion — and that’s two different companies making a profit on top of that — you have to wonder, what kind of quality is really in that jar. I’m a dog lover, and our pet food costs more per portion than the jarred [baby] food you find at the grocery store. When we start to piece this whole thing together, we started to realize that there was a market for super-premium baby food.

On avoiding the creation of picky eaters: Dr. Alan Greene writes in my book that if you don’t introduce children to foods by the time they’re 2 or 3, there’s a syndrome to protect themselves from experiences that may harm us. So if you think about that from a primate state, that if your mother hadn’t shown you something to eat by the time you’re 3-4 years old, maybe you shouldn’t eat it . . . they look at it like it will harm them.

On sending kids to bed without dinner: Sure, [we do it] all the time. They’re not going to die. If it gets to a point where you’ve had enough of them throwing the plate on the floor, then you have to remove them from the situation. Because they’re just destroying the experience for everyone else. It's really about knowing in your heart that you’re creating a well-balanced adult, and that you’re not going to create that child that is still eating chicken fingers when they’re 16 years old.

Keep reading to see what Tyler recommends parents keep in their freezers and whether or not he's opening a baby food truck!

Table for three, and pull up a high chair please! Tyler Florence's ultimate dining experience will include a baby food option at his three Bay Area restaurants set to open this Summer and beyond. While the concepts of the celebrity chef's first (and subsequent) eateries — San Francisco's Wayfare Tavern, El Paseo in Mill Valley, and Rotisserie & Wine in Napa — are not tot-centric, Florence told us yesterday that he plans to have his own baby food, Sprout, available to parent patrons who bring in their children.

The father of three — Miles, 14, Hayden, 3, and Dorothy, 2 — launched his organic foods for the small set a year ago. Florence said that while most of his competitors "steam the entire fruit or vegetable with skin and seeds and then puree it," he uses techniques like roasting to caramelize produce and bring out the natural sugars. The result is delicious, pure food. It's the difference, he says, between a chef's approach and "those who create most baby foods — a food scientist and a marketing person." Florence's "lab" is his home kitchen, where he perfects all his appetizing entrees from roasted bananas and brown rice to pasta with lentil bolognese using fresh ingredients and a blender. And, while Florence is conscious that it is parents purchasing their children's food, Sprout pleases pint-sized palates. His daughter eats four to five pouches a day. To see what the future holds for the chef, read more