Led by Bobby Flay, star chefs argue for a gender-neutral Easy Bake Oven

We’d be remiss if we didn’t alert our readers to the latest viral controversy, since it reflects on the way many of us may have enjoyed our first cooking experiences. Apparently, an eighth-grade girl has petitioned Hasbro to offer Easy Bake Ovens in more colors than just pink, backing up her request with a widely viewed You Tube video of her four-year old brother explaining he doesn’t feel comfortable playing with his friends with a pink oven. (For those of you who may not know what an Easy Bake Oven is, it’s a play oven that actually can cook cakes and cookies. It formerly used just the heat of a light bulb, but now apparently has an actual heating element.)

Bobby Flay, who played with an Easy Bake Oven as a child, picked up the argument and, as this article in the Braiser reports, has recruited many of his (male) celebrity chef friends to fight along with him. Specifically, they have made their own video (which you can view on the Braiser site)  talking about how they support the petition since they all loved cooking as children – in short, they want Hasbro to “make an Easy Bake for dudes.”

We’ll let you know how this crucial issue turns out, but we have a feeling Hasbro will be coming around.