Top Chef: Mom And Dad

Artwork from the East Harlem School in one of the holiday windows at BarneysWhen middle schoolers from the East Harlem School in New York were asked by Barneys New York to choose their favorite chefs, nearly all of them picked either Mom or Dad. The kids seems to have stolen Barney's typically anarchic, quirky heart; their tributes to mom and dad are on display in the foodie-themed holiday windows alongside life-size images of bonafide food stars including Sandra Lee (future first lady of New York?), Mario Batali, Martha Stewart and Bobby Flay. "I felt like Margaret Mead discovering a new tribe of people," Simon Doonan, Barney's window dresser, said about putting the foodie windows together.

If the children's drawings of their favorite chefs and dishes--with titles like "My Mom's rice and beans; My Dad's soup"--are any indication, the tribal eating habits of the planet are not as bad as we think. Sure, it's a random sampling of family life, but it's an honest peek into how hard parents are working to do right by their kids--it's not easy to go home and cook after a day's work, but it sure pays off.A home-cooking triumph.

Research bears out that having warm and fuzzy feelings about family meals gives the gift of better health later in life. In one study--which evaluated middle-schooler's family meal frequency, and its effect on health five years later--having regular family meals in early adolescence (average age 12.8) was associated with increased daily intake of essential nutrients in later adolescence (average age 17.2), a time when kids begin to feed themselves outside the home more regularly. The family-meal intensive middle schoolers ate more vegetables, calcium-rich food, fiber, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, folate and vitamins A and B(6) in high school compared to their peers who hadn't had frequent family meals in middle school. By that measure, it would be tough to find an early adolescent practice more beneficial to health than the family meal.

Part of the power of the family meal is the structure it provides in the chaos of a budding adolescent's life. In one 2008 study, the more frequently a child was engaged in less-structured meals the more that child ate for reasons other than hunger. Other research has found young adolescent women who do not eat meals with their families are at risk for being overweight in a 5-year period. Psychologists at the University of Missouri found children who watch more television and eat fewer family meals are more likely to be overweight for the first time at spring semester of third grade, irregardless of the amount of aerobic exercise they get. The evidence is abundant: Eating home-cooked meals is good for kids.

November 25th is, of course, like the Olympics of Home Cooking, when Mom and Dad better be at the top of their game. (After all, they're going to get some competition from Grandma, not to mention Uncle Claudio.) Bring on the creamed onions, smoked oyster stuffing, whipped yams, haricot verts with toasted almonds, and the mighty Bird. According the the USDA 241.9 million turkeys were produced this year, down from 273 million last year. If you can find one that has had a nice life, by all means, honor the creature with proper cooking: Temperature is key.

Harold McGee, the writer and all-around kitchen guru, checks the temperature, early and often. The final moisture level in the turkey is directly related to the temperature you cook it to. For breast meat, aim for 150 to 155°F (despite what the government says, this temperature is perfectly safe so long as you let your turkey rest for at least 15 minutes or so). For dark meat, 165°F is the goal. Check the temperature well before the expected finishing time, as any number of factors--your oven, frozen vs. fresh, etc--can affect how fast the turkey cooks. There's still time to go out and get a good meat thermometer, which McGee recommends.