Take theirs out early
This is the move that makes all of it work. Lift a small portion out before the salt, the soy, the fish sauce, the stock and the chilli go in, then season the adults’ pan afterwards. Almost every note in this book is a variation on that one sentence.
Salt
A small child needs very little of it, and salt arrives in more forms than the pot on the table: soy and tamari, fish sauce, stock, miso, olives, capers, anchovy, feta and halloumi are all salt by another name. Where a dish is salty by construction — a puttanesca, a saganaki — the recipe says so plainly instead of pretending it can be undone, and tells you what to give them from the same pan instead.
Heat
Chilli is not a danger, only unwelcome. The recipes built on it — the jerk, the Sichuan beef, the sambal — tell you the exact step at which to divert a plain portion, which is nearly always before the paste hits the pan.
Honey
Not for a baby under one year old. Twenty-seven recipes here use it and every one of them says so in its own note, with a substitute: mashed ripe banana, a little grated apple, or simply leaving it out, because ripe fruit is sweet enough on its own. After the first birthday it is no longer an issue.
Shapes that catch
Round and firm is the combination to be careful with: whole grapes, cherry tomatoes, olives, coins of raw carrot. Quarter them lengthwise and the problem goes away. Whole and chopped nuts stay off the plate until about five — grind them to a powder or use a smooth nut butter instead.
Textures that work
Soft strips about the length of a finger, so they can hold one end and eat the other. Meat shredded or chopped small rather than left in pieces. Pulses lightly crushed with the back of a fork. Long noodles cut up. Anything out of the air fryer given a few minutes, because the middle stays hot longer than the outside suggests.
Raw fish, and coffee
Two recipes use raw or acid-cured fish and one is built on espresso. Each says plainly that it is not for a toddler, and gives the alternative from the same ingredients — a piece of the fillet poached and flaked, or the plain sweetened ricotta without the coffee.
How much
Roughly a quarter of an adult serving is the useful starting figure, and then let them decide when they have finished. The point of cooking one dinner rather than two is that there is always more in the pan.
These notes are about cooking, not nutrition or medicine. Weaning guidance differs between countries and changes over time — follow your own health service’s advice and your child’s appetite. Where you are unsure about a particular food, leave it out.