Toca Kitchen
Imaginative cooking game with no rules is just right.
Toca Kitchen
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know Toca Kitchen does not have any rules or accomplishments; it is a fun, imaginative tool for kids to explore food selection and preparation. Kids first select one of four characters: a boy, a girl, a cat, or a bull. Then, kids open the fridge to select one of 12 food items, including meat, fish, vegetables, an egg, and hay. Kids can then try to feed the character the food raw, or prepare it with a knife, food processor, pot of water, frying pan, or microwave. As can be seen in this trailer, the food changes in response to the preparation, for example being sliced, ground up, or browned. Different characters react to the food in different ways -- for example, the bull loves the hay, which is rejected by the other characters. The sequence of taps, drags, and screen changes can be a bit complicated, especially for young kids. Parents may want to help kids through at first before letting them explore on their own. Once kids get going though, there's no stopping them: Play is unlimited and never ending. Read the developer's privacy policy for details on how your (or your kids') information is collected, used, and shared and any choices you may have in the matter, and note that privacy policies and terms of service frequently change.
Community Reviews
Vegetarian mode!
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Helped with picky eater
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What’s It About?
In Toca Kitchen, kids get to pretend they are chefs feeding four different food tasters -- a boy, a girl, a cat, and a bull. As kids choose what foods to cook and how, they can figure out what each of these four food tasters like and dislike. For example, the cat loves raw meat, but no one else will eat it raw. Kids can get creative with their food creations by mixing and matching the food and cooking technique. Who's ready for some blended fish with microwaved lemon?
Is It Any Good?
Little kids who just want to play and explore without worrying about rules to follow will adore this app. The characters look a little odd at first, an impression not helped by their monosyllabic grunts and gasps in response to the food, but after a few "yums!" they quickly grow on you. It's fun to figure out which foods the characters like, and it's really neat to watch the food brown and steam while it cooks. We might be a tad happier if the kids would use their forks to eat their food, and perhaps say "no thank you" rather than dropping rejected food off their plate! Still this is a great app for cultivating early exposure to cooking. Bon appetit!
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Involve your kids in meal preparation. There are plenty of simple cooking tasks that are safe for little ones such as measuring ingredients or washing produce.
Let your kids have a say in meal planning. Ask them to talk about their likes and dislikes and have them help you shop for groceries.
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire
- Subjects: Hobbies: cooking
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning: analyzing evidence, Creativity: imagination
- Release date: December 15, 2011
- Category: Educational Games
- Topics: Cooking and Baking
- Publisher: Toca Boca
- Version: 1.0.1
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 4.2 or later
- Last updated: January 23, 2019
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