Play Kitchens Guide

Just about every child out there has dreamed of having their own personal play kitchen. There is something about mimicking adults or ‘playing house’ that children have always loved. Play kitchens give children the ability to do so as realistically as possible. Most of the memories that children have regarding their mommies and daddies are of them in the kitchen preparing meals, cleaning up, baking, and perhaps washing a dish or two while chatting away on the phone. Today’s toy kitchen captures those memories and gives children everything they need in order to mimic those actions—right down to the phone and dishes.

Toy food is just one of the many different types of accessories that are needed in order to make the play kitchen experience come alive for our little ones. Some toy kitchens come with toy food to help aid in the reality of the experience. Other times, play food must be purchased in addition to the toy kitchen set. While some kitchens come with some food, accessories like this are small and are easily ruined or lost. In this case it may be necessary to purchase a few extra of these accessories. Luckily, they don’t often cost much.

Toy food can be purchased just about anywhere. Some play kitchens have certain types of toy food that are designed to go with the set. Others can take any type of toy food. Certain types of food have their own benefits and many of them have qualities that are inherent to being able to truly enjoy the play kitchen experience.

Wooden Play Food

Wooden play food is just one of the different types of pretend food that you can look into. Wooden food often goes best with wooden play kitchen sets, but not always. It can realistically go with any type of play kitchen, from wooden to plastic to electronic; kids are not usually too picky. The only downside to wooden food is that it does not contain the electronic chips that are necessary to make it work with electronic kitchens or interactive kitchens that are being put out these days.

These are kitchens that seem to recognize when children are doing certain things in it. For example, they often “know” when the pan is set on the burner and make frying sounds. They know when the egg is placed in the pan versus the hamburger and so on. Wooden food does not have the technology built into it that makes it possible for this to happen. If you have an electronic kitchen set, wooden play food may not be the best idea if you are looking for accessories to help bring your kitchen to life.

Plastic Toy Food

Plastic food is usually the cheapest of the bunch. This food doesn’t usually last as long as the wooden accessories but for kids who are more worried about quantity than quality—as most are—these are a great choice. Plastic pretend play food usually comes in a large bag and contains a little bit of everything, from canned goods to pretend fruit, pretend hamburger patties and steaks, pretend juice, pretend eggs, pretend everything! These bags also usually come with toy plates and cups, flatware, pots and pans and things of that nature too. Plastic food bags like this are usually an awesome value, but again they don’t often go with the electronic kitchens. They may work great for kitchens without batteries or children that don’t care.

Electronic Kitchen Compatible Food

There is such a thing as pretend play food that does work with electronic kitchens. Most of them have this type of food that comes with them, but there are replacements or additional kits that can usually be purchased to go with these kitchens. These play food set options are built with electronic chips that help the kitchen to know what they are. For example, when the egg is set in the frying pan the electronic kitchen voice may make a comment to your child about frying the egg. If they set a steak in the pan, the kitchen would know better than to make a comment about a fried egg because of the technology built into it.
Makers of Pretend Food

There are as many manufacturers of toy play food out there as there are play kitchen manufacturers. Melissa and Doug, KidKraft, Learning Resources, Step2, Fisher Price, Little Tikes—these are just a few of the many manufacturers of toy kitchens and toy kitchen accessories including toy food. These accessory manufacturers do normally make children’s toys and accessories to fit their own toys, but most can be interchanged. Again, most parents go for price or are looking for a certain style for their little ones and they aren’t often worried about whether or not the brand of food matches the brand of kitchen, or if they are even the same style.

Melissa and Doug tend to make wooden food sets for toy kitchens. They often contain magnets or Velcro to enhance the experience. They even make toy food that kids can “cut” apart or stack together. All of their products are quite durable and suitable for even small children.

KidKraft also typically make wooden food sets, and much of their product line is themed. For example, you can get a breakfast themed set, a holiday set, or even a birthday set. As with Melissa and Doug, this play food is very durable.
Learning Resources offers some fairly amazing toy food products. Much of their product line is plastic, but they offer a solid variety with little details your kids will love.

Step 2 also makes plastic food, and while not as carefully detailed as the products offered by learning resources, it is some of the most durable toy food on the market. They offer a wide variety of general food options.

There is nothing wrong with mixing it up a little bit. Children love to have a load of accessories to play with, and no child can ever have enough pretend play food for their play kitchen. Do your little one a favor and stock up on all of the quality toy food that you can find—it enhances their play kitchen experience. Be sure that there are no small parts for smaller children, as some little ones have a tendency to actually want to ‘eat’ their food—definitely not a safe idea for the littlest ones out there.

Play food set options are available just about anywhere. Whether you like wooden food, plastic food, or you go for the food with the fancy accessories there is a set of accessories out there for your child’s toy kitchen that they are bound to fall in love with. It is just a matter of finding the right one for your little one’s needs and taste.