Advantages: kids love it, teaches kids hygiene and satety
Disadvantages: you have to clean up the kitchen after they've tried to cook stuff!!

...my little one tootles into the lounge singing.... "Big Cook, Little Cook Welcome to our Cafe Big Cook, Little Cook Want you to come and play Meeting all the friends we cook for Sharing stories, tripsand fun Big Cook, Little Cook will cook for everyone!" does that sound familiar? If not, and you have kids it won't be long until your humming along too! If you haven't seen it i'll explain. Shown on CBeebies Big Cook, Little Cook are a genius culinary duo! The 2 characters Big Cook Ben and Little Cook Small run a cafe together and cook for all their amazing guests in this DVD. On this DVD which by the way lasts 100 minutes we see Frankie the Footballer, Denise the Dentist, a Clown and a disco dancer arrive to eat something delicious cooked by our favourite chef duo! Each of the four episodes have the same format... Read review

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Advantages: get kids in to cooking
Disadvantages: have to watch it at least ten times a day

...this programme is great.... i seem to spend most of my time watching kids programmes these days, but i am kind of getting used to it.. This one really consists of two cooks, one is the main chef.. he is a normal sized adult and does all the cooking, and some really daft dancing, the other is a small helper cook, he is about the size of a small doll, and he does all the mixing and singing and some more daft dancing.. which really makes me giggle when they are both at it... The main cook is really good at letting the children no what they are going to make and making it sound fun.. makes me want to cook... he he... and the little one as the food is cooking goes on his flying spoon and travels around looking for interesting things... for example one day he flew to a farm to see where the eggs came from and how they got in to the shops... Read review

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Advantages: Some minigames are alright
Disadvantages: Graphics won't wow you. Very repetitive. Only a few minigames. Annoying music. Boring.

...Remember that cooking game that came out last year on the DS? Don't worry, you're not suffering from memory loss, most people haven't heard of it. Cooking Mama came out last year as a surprisingly fun, yet simple DS game. Cooking Mama is back on the Wii in a crappier version of the DS game. Story There is a mama and you must cook for her. The title does not indicate that you are actually cooking mama, but the mama is cooking herself. Gameplay The gameplay tries to emulate the experience of cooking, but honestly, real cooking is more fun than this game… and I hate cooking. Basically the game consists of fifty-five different dishes to cook. To cook these dishes you have to do what you normally do when preparing food, go through the steps to get the final dish. The game will throw you some minigames in which you must complete... Read review

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Advantages: Peace and quiet
Disadvantages: None

...BIG COOK LITTLE COOK: Synopsis: Big Cook Ben and Little Cook Small love their third DVD which features five fairytale episodes. Princess And The Pea Ben`s family are coming to stay but there aren`t enough beds! Luckily a Princess visits, and in return for making her a delicious Princess Pie she leaves some duvets and mattresses for Ben`s guests. Little Bo Peep Ben ruins his woolly jumper from Aunty Betty - oh dear! Little Bo Peep arrives and Ben and Small make her a Potato Sheep. In return she leaves them a lovely new jumper, just like the one Aunty Betty made. Snow White When Snow White visits the cafe, Small whizzes off to find out how custard is made, so they can make her some Seven Dwarfs custard and apple tarts. Old MacDonald Ben and Small decide to make Old MacDonald some Farmyard Smoothies. He... Read review

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Advantages: Great, clear, easy concise book, great photos, 140 recipes
Disadvantages: None

...Cook with Jamie We all know and love ?? Jamie Oliver, the award winning Naked Chef, star of Jamie's school dinners and successful restaurants, books and cookery programmes. Well, actually from some of the comments I've read about him on this site before, we don't all love him, I think it's a case of love or hate, but aside from that he does produce some amazing cook books. The one I am reviewing is called Cook with Jamie and it is a hardbound book, published in 2006 by the Penguin Group. It is quite a plain book with a photo of him on the front holding a cooking knife and surrounded by a photo negative all around the outside. He calls the book, "My guide to making you a better cook." In my opinion he is correct. The thing I love about this book is that it is very simple to follow and allows you to produce some gorgeous meals... Read review

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Advantages: Easy to play, addictive at first
Disadvantages: Some of the actions can become repetitive, can cause arm/hand aches and pains!

...This is my review of Cooking Mama, a game that I have now owned for a few months now. I bought cooking Mama as I had previously seen it on the Nintendo DS and it seemed like a game I would enjoy. When I bought it, it was £40 and after looking it seems that it is still as expensive. There are four options that are presented to you after you choose to either start a new game or continue your previous game. These four options are Let's Cook, Friends and Food of the World, Friends and Food and options. *Let's Cook* When you first start in this option a menu will open to show 10 recipes from around the world. So that I can explain how this game works I will explain how the first recipe is made which will help you to understand how the game works. I think in total there are 55 recipes that are available. Cooking a recipe... Read review

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Advantages: Gives Normans fans an idea of how his musical taste and talent has developed
Disadvantages: May not be to everyone's taste

...Norman Cook really first arrived on the music scene by developing his dj'ing skills on Brightons club scene at the early age of 18 whilst he was studying at the University of Brighton. A little while on in 1985 a friend of Cook's named Paul Heaton had a new guitar group called the Housemartins, but unfortunately they had just lost their bass player, so Heaton then contacted Cook who agreed to be their new bass player. The Housemartins had a few big hits such as Happy Hour and Caravan Love but by 1988 they had split up, this is where Cook then wen't off and his career started to get going. The album "The Fatboy Slim/Norman Cook collection" gives an insight into how Cook's career has progressed along with his musical tastes, for example after the split of the Housemartins Cook soon formed the group Beats International which... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap, clean and cheerful
Disadvantages: Not for those who want to bring half their house in their luggage!

...I’m not a regular flyer. In fact this was my first flight as an adult! So I don’t really have anything to compare them with. However I was pretty happy with Thomas Cook! I flew with them from Gatwick (London, England) to Vancouver in Canada and back last summer. One of the weird things about this is that it doesn’t seem to be possible to book on these flights through the Thomas Cook website! I booked via Canadian Affair. I’ve done a separate review on them if you want to look it up. I also paid for an upgrade to 'Premier' class and I suppose partly because of that check-in was very quick and painless. There’s an extra baggage allowance for those in Premier Economy: 30 kg hold luggage and 5 kg cabin. I believe this is still a lot less than most schedule flights, and basically means one bag and one suitcase. But I found... Read review

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Advantages: Excellent magazine with lots of easy to cook recipes
Disadvantages: A few calorific puds

...What shall I cook for dinner tonight? As much as I love cooking, and since retiring have more time (or so I'm told!) I don't often plan menus in advance. I cook what I feel like on the day. But sometimes you want to try something new, maybe something easy and quick to prepare, but it must be tasty and look good - in other words look as if I've slaved over the stove preparing something wonderful for my loved ones! I love having magazines to browse through and spotted the BBC Easycook in Somerfields one day. I'm a fan of cookery programmes and often use the BBC website to find a recipe that I've seen cooked, so decided to fork out £2.50 for the magazine. Value for Money? ****************** Oh yes. I was amazed at how many recipes there were I would try, as I have shelves of cookery books and use only a few recipes from each of them... Read review

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Advantages: It is fun for the whole family
Disadvantages: Some of the movements are hard to perform

...I bought this game for my 4 years old.He loves it. At the beginning was difficult, but now he knows how to play. Basically you have a cooking book with recipes for all over the world. With the wii remote you have to do the cutting, slicing,peeling, in fact everything to prepare the food. when you \'cook\' one recipe another recipes are add to the book. The best part really is when two people cook at the same time. this is good because the fun is double, you want to cook and you want to win the other player. My 9years old daughter always win, so my 4 years son gets upset. Still good game. It is the first time I have ever play a game and I really enjoy it. My 11 years old son thinks is boring , but he is a \'professional\' with the games. The only thing i do not like is that some of the movements are quite difficult, like... Read review

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