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Why children should learn to cook The obvious answer would seem to be so that they can fend for themselves when they leave home. However, today many children appear unable to do even the most basic things in the kitchen, not just cooking but basic hygiene issues. Schools no longer have the time on the curricular to teach ‘proper’ cookery, today it’s dressed up as ‘Food Technology’ and offered up as a social science lesson, often with a bare 40mins a week for just 6 short weeks. During these lessons they are lucky to actually get into a cookery room and turn on a stove. Today many schools aren’t allowing children to bring in their own foods because of health and hygiene issues, with the result the schools have to provide the items, which eats into their budgets, the knock on effect is that the pupils can only watch a member of staff do the actual preparation and cooking. What happened to the full afternoon every week that we had? Those days are very much gone and I feel to the detriment of family life and the health and welfare of children. Many of us of a certain age remember fondly or less so depending on personal skills and the teacher, lessons dedicated to ‘things to do with a potato’ we aren’t talking just chips, boiled or mashed. What about baked (jacket) with a variety of fillings? Crispy roasted potatoes with a good old fashion roasted joint? Children are taught the basics of food values, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins but, they are no longer taught how to use these foods to good advantage, they don’t know which foods are good together. Which meats are fattier than others, which cut would produce a good cheap and filling meal? Learning to cook a meal brings many skills and involves many other subjects, science, maths, social skills, history and geography. For instance a basic spaghetti bolognaise, meat or meat substitute – where did it come from, which part of the animal, why is this better, how can it be improved? What happens to meat when it’s cooked, how do you tell just by looking at it? Which country invented spaghetti, was it the Italians or maybe the Chinese? How do you eat it without covering the entire table and guests? What is socially accepted whilst eating it? How can you make this meal a gourmet dinner or a cheap and quick meal for the family or mates in student digs? What if you are vegetarian or don’t happen to like beef? How much of each ingredient per person?
My own children have been taught how to make cookies, lovely! However they don’t need to know what happens when you add too much sugar or flour, they do need to understand temperature of the oven, and do need to know that cookies are a sweet treat and how to offset the fat! My three eldest spend 6 weeks designing a burger and packaging, why is that helpful? It’s not! I’m fortunate that I was taught in school how to cook, and whilst I have never attempted puff pastry since, I did learn some good basic skills, from this I developed a love for cooking, food and the history of food, then pass on my knowledge to my own children, my eldest daughter is a dream in the kitchen – albeit a messy chef! The rest can at least prepare a simple meal if required and are gradually learning skills that will hopefully take them into adulthood, with a good understanding of mixing flavours, preparing healthy options, and managing food on a budget. As they get older I hope that they are learning from me more in depth skills, and become more adventurous with food. Another very important reason we need to teach our children to cook, is to teach them that fast food is ok occasionally, however a good balanced meal is the only way to a healthy life, that a life dieting isn’t a way to rid those excessive pounds that are gained from the junk foods they are fast becoming reliant on. Learn to cook and stay fit and slim, learn to cook and you can actually lose weight naturally if you should happen to put on weight. Portion control! Going large means getting larger, it’s simple science, eat more, exercise less you will get fat, obese, weight challenged or whatever is the current PC phrasing. Of course you can have your cake – homemade preferably, and eat it, just remember to eat your vegetables first. The third and most important reason to learn to cook is to develop an understanding of where our food comes from, how it grows, how it’s made, what it contains. A recent survey of primary aged children revealed that some didn’t know what a frozen chip was made of, or where carrots came from, indeed when I was working in a village school that was surrounded by fields, when confronted with carrots with their green tops, many of the children didn’t realise they grew under the ground! Teach a child to cook and they are often less fussy eaters, they are often more willingly to try something new. Teach a child to cook and you are giving them a skill for life. Today we are more aware of the cost of food, and so it would also be a valuable life skill to teach and maybe learn alongside them to grow their own vegetables, to perhaps keep a couple of hens. Much of our food is grown and shipped abroad for no other reason than it’s cheaper and we can eat strawberries all year round if we wished, by growing our own and showing our children the joy of picking the first tomatoes, or cooking with our own home grown potatoes children are more inclined to try something they have seen grown from a seed, nurtured and picked themselves. I know that we ‘had’ strawberries in a pot at the bottom of the garden, I know this because my youngest son declared them delicious, I haven’t found out myself as he ate them as they ripened. My youngest daughter planted butternut squash seeds ‘just to see what happened’ and is now nurturing 4 huge plants that look to be developing some fine veg.
Kerry Newton
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