Should cookery be on the national curriculum?

At a time when millions of pounds are being spent on public health campaigns in the 'fight against obesity' and Weight Watchers are rolling out programs for teenagers and kids, the government is looking to drop cookery classes in schools as part of a general review of the National Curriculum. Under the previous government, the Licence to Cook programme included 24 hours of practical cookery skills for all pupils aged 11-14 and included training for teachers and funding for kitchen equipment to be installed in schools.  Now the tide has turned and despite the growing obsession over child obesity the current government are looking to ditch cookery and focus on 'core subjects' like Mathematics and English instead.


In a recent survey of schoolchildren, most didn't know that burgers were made from cows and that fish fingers had anything to do with animals that live in the sea. How can we expect the future generations to make healthy food choices when they have no idea where the food comes from and how to prepare it? Surely cookery is one of the most 'core' subjects there is? The  best way to show children how to have a healthy, balanced relationship with food and by consequence a healthy, balanced weight is to focus on teaching all youngsters basic cookery skills so that by the time they leave school they know how to take a few, simple, fresh ingredients and turn them into a satisfying, nutritious meal.


Imagine schools with a basic kitchen in each classroom: children learning how to cut, measure, weigh and mix ingredients (lots of mathematics there) and finding out about where ingredients come from, what happens to them when they are cooked together, learning to read a recipe and even writing some of their own (lots of English, Biology and Chemistry too). Imagine a National Curriculum where each child leaves school with a good grounding in cookery. When you know how to make a basic soup, a stew, a stir fry, an omelette and a pudding you are pretty much set for life.  You can decide what tastes, textures and quantities you are hungry for, you can ensure you eat food you enjoy and take pride in your work. None of the above take any longer top make than heating up a ready meal or popping out for a takeaway and with a bit of planning, they can be much cheaper. 


I recently spent a couple of hours on a Sunday morning holding a cookery workshop for 20 kids aged 2 to 10 years. As part of a larger event on recycling and using scrap to create things I went for simple recipes based on leftover bread. We made an Italian recipe called Poor Man's Meatballs - delicious, golden, crunchy, cheesy bread balls - and an easy bread & butter pudding. The children had a great time and really got stuck in, even the very little ones. They all enjoyed devouring their home-made goodies and took away a little bit of cookery knowledge that I hope will stick with them for many years.

I hope the government review will realise just how important cookery is for children's health and wellbeing and make it part of the National Curriculum. In the meantime, get your kinds into the kitchen and have fun making Poor Man's Meatballs with them. Even a 2 year old  can enjoy squishing some bread and rolling it into balls. You will be teaching them valuable skills for the future.


If you'd like Audrey aka the Kitchen Fairy to come and cook with you and your children, get in touch and drop me an email audrey[at]beyondchocolate[dot]co[dot]uk

Black marks and 'treats'

I took my 3 year old on a play date yesterday with 2 little mates of his from nursery. The little boy whose house we went to - let's call him Jimmy - has a large gold star/black mark chart taped to the kitchen wall. Every time he does something 'good' he gets a gold star and a treat and every time he does something 'naughty' he gets a black mark and the treat is withdrawn. When I asked what the treats were he answered with one word and a glint in his eye: sweets.


The boys were playing wildly, running around, wrestling and shouting and generally doing what boys do. I was on a work call and Jimmy's nanny was a whirlwind of activity: she was fixing the boys' lunch, emptying the dishwasher, hanging out the laundry and trying to tidy up all at the same time and she was getting increasingly frustrated with Jimmy who kept on throwing toys all over the place. She told him once, twice, three times to stop and then shouted: "Right! That's it. You're getting a black mark and no treats after lunch!" She got a big marker pen, drew a large black dot on the chart and wrote "naughty" next to it. Jimmy seemed unfazed and carried right on flinging his cars against the wall. I finished my call and got the little hooligans involved in a game of football outside until lunch was ready and we all sat down. 


After lunch, the nanny took a large tin out of a cupboard and doled out sweets to my son and the other boy. She turned to Jimmy and said: "You're not getting any because you've been naughty." Jimmy sat there and looked mortified as he watched the other two wolfing down the sweets. I sat there and felt intensely uncomfortable.


What has all of this got to do with Beyond Chocolate? Well it struck me yesterday that Jimmy will grow up with certain associations: he will associate obedience and rewards with sweets...and punishment with deprivation. Sweets will become (or most probably already have become) something special and a bit forbidden. Something Jimmy will long for...not because they taste good and he loves them particularly but because he has been taught from a young age that when he has them he is 'good', loved, approved of. Can you start to see how Jimmy's star chart fits in with Beyond Chocolate?


I wonder how many millions of children are learning the same lesson as Jimmy. Before the indignant comments start pouring in I want to say that I am not dissing Jimmy's parenting choices here. They do what they believe is best and everyone is entitled to that. Star charts and black marks may very well help to make Jimmy a great person. This is not about whether this parenting method is OK or not, it's about what the consequences are in terms of our relationship with food and how it impacts the choices that these children will make when faced with a packet of sweets later on in life. It's about how these children  choose to comfort themsevles, reward themselves and make themselves feel better as adults. 


Were you ever given sweets as a reward in childhood? Were you ever punished by being deprived of them? How do you think it has shaped the way you view sweets today?

Chocolate Festival

Our forum is buzzing with excitement about the upcoming Chocolate Festival taking place in London from 10 to 12 December. Events include lots of chocolate related demonstrations, talks, tastings, book signings and more.

We can't think of a better way to spend a weekend.....

Beyond Chocolate and children - jelly

Oscar has a thing about jelly at the moment, a very toddler 'thing'. He's really into it. He likes the way it wobbles - makes him giggle every time. He loves the bright, lurid colours it comes in. He loves making it, patiently stirring to dissolve the gelatine, his little face a picture of concentration. He loves eating it, squishing it with his tongue against his teeth. So far we've made clementine jelly, mango jelly, orange jelly and banana jelly (no, it wasn't a success, as I had predicted). We've also eaten our way through Hartley's technicolour assortment of flavours with the alarmingly fluorescent green one (lime) a firm favourite.


Watching my little boy have having so much fun, being so excited and so immersed in jelly has led me to reflect on how little we let ourselves get genuinely excited about anything as adults, in particular about food. For every time I hear a woman raving about something she's eating, I've heard another 1000 worrying about it. Worrying about fat content, calculating points and calories, berating themselves for eating it, wondering how many hours at the gym it will take to get rid of it. Food so often isn't a source of pleasure, it's a source of guilt and shame and anxiety. And when it's not about weight-loss we are worrying about which foods to eat and which ones to avoid to: live longer/beat cancer/look younger/lower cholesterole/fill in the blank. Eating becomes a science. It's not, it's one of life's most basic and enjoyable activities - like sleeping and sex.


This is what I love about Beyond Chocolate. We have a whole principle devoted to this - to enjoyment, not sex that is!


Enjoy.


Enjoy food. Let yourself have love affairs. Revel in the colours, the textures, the smells. Really let yourself get into something. Taste or cook all the variations you can find. Throw your tastebuds a party. Give them something to rave about.


If you're not sure how to go about enjoying food, if you feel you've lost the innate ability to do so, I can highly recommend spending an afternoon with a toddler in the throes of the current infatuation. The delight, the sheer abandon and the authentic pleasure they take in eating that particular food is inspiring.


I can feel the jelly thing is starting to dwindle. It's not the the first thing he talks about when he wakes up in the morning now and there's been a mango jelly in the fridge for a few days now. How exciting, who knows what the next 'thing' will be...chorizo?...kiwis?