Ages 4–8 — and some adults!

Color it. Cook it. Eat it!

Chef Johnny's Recipe Trunk is a cook-together coloring book series. Kids color every step of a real recipe, then cook it side-by-side with a grown-up — with Kitchen Science, safety smarts, and a whole lot of cheese.

See the books Try a free page
🏆 Mac and Cheese hit #5 in Children's Cookbooks on Amazon.ca!
Chef Johnny's Recipe Trunk: Mac and Cheese — book cover

Meet the gang

Three friends, one kitchen, zero boring meals.

🛹

Chef Johnny

A 90s skater kid chef with a lightning-bolt apron and a trunk full of recipes. Every book starts with him remembering how he learned to cook — one delicious mess at a time.

🧹

Tidy Theresa

She makes tidy and organized a science! Theresa turns cleanup into a system kids can master — top to bottom, high to low, done in no time.

🐾

Mr. Creed

The world's best kitchen supervisor. Mr. Creed hides somewhere in every book — can your little chef find him on every page?

The books

Every book: a real recipe to color and cook, a grocery list, a measuring cheat sheet, Kitchen Science, GROWN-UP JOB safety markers, and badges to earn. French editions are rolling out all fall!

Mac and Cheese cover Available now

Book 1 · Mac and Cheese

The one that started it all — 17 color-and-cook steps to the creamiest mac and cheese ever. #5 in Children's Cookbooks on Amazon.ca.

Buy on Amazon
Pancakes cover Coming Oct 4

Book 2 · Pancakes

Fluffy buttermilk pancakes — and the Kitchen Science of bubbles! Plus every topping a little chef can dream of.

Get the free page
Coming Oct 9

Creed's First Christmas

A storybook from the heart: a 12-week-old puppy, his first Christmas after adoption, and the presents he opened all by himself.

All fall 2026

More from the Trunk

The trunk keeps opening — in English and in French:

Quesadillas · Oct 17Johnny and the Kitchen · Nov 6Meatloaf · Oct 30Spaghetti · Nov 12Tidy Theresa · Nov 27

Try one page — free!

Download a free mini-recipe coloring sheet and see how the books work: color the step, cook the step. The first sheet drops with the Pancakes launch.

Free sheet coming this week

Color & Cook workshops

Chef Johnny is a real chef — cooking since 1999 — and he brings the books to life for libraries, schools, and community centres.

🎨 ColorKids color the recipe steps as the story unfolds.
🔬 DiscoverA Kitchen Science moment in every session — why pancakes puff, why cheese melts.
🏅 Earn a badgeEvery little chef leaves with a badge — and a book to sign, if you'd like.

Booking for fall and winter 2026–27. Reach out through the Chef Johnny's Recipe Trunk page on Facebook.

About the chef

Chef John Mac Keracher Pappas started cooking in 1999, opened his first restaurant at 20, and has run close to ten kitchens since. The punk rocker who grew up in the skate-punk scene now cooks for a living in Quebec — and writes the cookbooks he wishes he'd had at age three, when he was already on the kitchen floor 'making eggies.' The Recipe Trunk books are his memories, drawn for the next generation of little chefs. He plays in a punk cover band called the Hooligans.