Could this be the most unusual Christmas Present for a 6 year old?

 

Most kids might have asked Santa for a new train set, games console, dolls house, board game, scooter, bike or other such items.

But Daniel is different. Daniel has a dream. For as long as we can remember, Daniel has wanted to be a Chef. He has always had a love of food. He seems particularly good at smelling and tasting different flavours. He loves trying unusual foods and is always keen to taste new herbs and spices. He even likes the taste of spoonfuls of vinegar and lemon juice!

Daniel has long talked about opening his own restaurant when he is bigger. He wants to call it The Brilliant Chef and he wants to be Head Chef. He tells us that he will cook for the poor and homeless and give them their meals for free - but everyone else has to pay.

He grasps every opportunity he can to be in the kitchen helping with (or more often initiating) the cooking. He certainly doesn't have the best mentor as both mum and dad are pretty useless in the kitchen, but that doesn't deter him.

He comes up with ideas he wants to try, looks up recipes on the internet and in cookery books, piles up ingredients in the trolley when we go shopping and then gets stuck into cooking (or 'cheffing' as he calls it).

Of course, if he changes his mind when he is older, and decides that 'Cheffing' as a career is not right for him, then that is absolutely fine. We have always encouraged him to become whatever he wants to become. But if he does end up a Chef, we wanted to help enable his dream in a tiny first step towards making his idea of 'The Brilliant Chef' a reality.

He has taken a real interest in our blogging journey and enjoys joining in with reviews and write ups. We were going to set up a little corner of our blog for him to share his recipes and passion for all things food. But then it occurred to us that once he is old enough, if he comes to set up his own blog or webpage, what if 'The Brilliant Chef' is no longer available as a domain name. So we did a slightly odd thing for a 6 year old's Christmas present - we bought him his own domain name.

This way he can blog about his food adventures now and if he is still following his childhood dream in years to come, www.TheBrilliantChef.co.uk is ready for him to make it what he wants to make it!

He has made a start already with the blog post about the Kent Cooks live final going on there, along with the recipes of what he cooked on that special day.

Click to read about the Kent Cooks live final.

 

He certainly did us proud! I was so impressed at his independence in a full sized Chef's Kitchen - He stayed in charge of what he was doing and stayed totally calm and unfazed by the experience. The judges were amazed too. I don't think anyone had seen anything quite like it - a 6 year old so able in the kitchen and so passionate about what he was doing. The experience has really boosted Daniel's confidence too and he has pretty much been in the kitchen everyday since, either cooking a recipe from scratch or helping with laying the table and preparing the food.

In our eyes he already is The Brilliant Chef - well done Daniel!