Me: "What do you like about cooking?"
Emmanuel (age 10): "Eating!" I got a real chuckle out of that.

When you boil it down, I guess the love of eating is what got all of us cooking in the first place!

I loved this week's show. I loved shooting it, and I loved watching it. Having kids in the kitchen brought out a warm, fun side of our chefs we don't often get to see and did what kids do to any situation -- they brightened it.

And while this week's Elimination Challenge may have seemed Draconian -- $10 to feed a family of four? And cooking healthily to boot? -- here are a couple facts to help put that in perspective:

•28 million Americans (almost 10% of the population) will rely on food stamps as a primary source of nutrition this year.

•A typical food stamp allotment in this country is $21 a person a week, which breaks down roughly to $1 per meal, or $4 per meal for a family of four.

Suddenly that $10 doesn't seem so bad, does it?

Especially when you consider that our chefs were driven to Whole Foods, a purveyor of high-quality ingredients, to do their shopping. The reality is that many mid- and low-income families live far from any place to buy healthy high-quality produce at affordable prices. Here in New York City, hundreds of thousands of residents live in neighborhoods with no supermarket, no green grocer, and no farmers' market. They are often forced to make do with what they can get at the corner grocery -- largely canned and boxed goods -- or fast food.