Jamie Oliver; Ministry of Food

buxtonrabbitgreen

I was taught to cook at school, and I can cook. But we were not allowed to start cooking lessons until we had made our hat and apron in sewing lessons. The teacher was so strict about the size of the taking stiches etc that it took me 3 years to make. So my cooking was severely delayed. However I can sew as well. But tack anything, you can bet your life I don't. Pins are good enough for me now.
Anyhow, schools are getting back to teaching cooking my 2 youngest have made quite a few things including a pasta dish and pizza. they know how to cook because I taught them anyway. It meant 2 years ago I could go off to Oz visiting relatives and know that they wouldn't starve because they could make about 4 dishes each, including a proper roux for the macaroni cheese.

Pink.

sandraroffey wrote: »

the tragedy is that no one IS taught to cook any more. i am 61 and when i went to the senior school at 11 years old, cookery and housecraft was compulsory for every girl. (woodwork or metalwork for the boys). . and we were taught to cook for the next four years. my mum taught me also and when i was 11 i could do the whole sunday roast!! but then, so could most girls my age. every christmas from when i was 11, i made the christmas cake. i made all the sausage rolls and xmas biscuits etc., but it was nothing unusual then. no one cooks any more, (if the are under 35) and sadly, my youngest daughter i include in that category. my eldest daughter can make a feast out of nothing, but she is a lot older. the younger ones just dont want to know. 'oh i cant be ar**d, i'll get a takeout'. what she spends on take out for three for one meal, i could feed them all for a week.

bring back proper cookery lessons.xxxx

I think you may be over-generalising there. You only have to look at the posts on the Old Style board every day to see how many accomplished cooks there are in their 20's and how many more there are who clearly want to learn (and are learning) how to cook.

Pink

meester

sandraroffey wrote: »

the tragedy is that no one IS taught to cook any more. i am 61 and when i went to the senior school at 11 years old, cookery and housecraft was compulsory for every girl. (woodwork or metalwork for the boys). . and we were taught to cook for the next four years. my mum taught me also and when i was 11 i could do the whole sunday roast!! but then, so could most girls my age. every christmas from when i was 11, i made the christmas cake. i made all the sausage rolls and xmas biscuits etc., but it was nothing unusual then. no one cooks any more, (if the are under 35) and sadly, my youngest daughter i include in that category. my eldest daughter can make a feast out of nothing, but she is a lot older. the younger ones just dont want to know. 'oh i cant be ar**d, i'll get a takeout'. what she spends on take out for three for one meal, i could feed them all for a week.

Nonsense, I'm 26, and my son (age 6) and I just made a fish pie. I got him to stir the onions and leeks to stop them burning in butter, fry the fish, and grate the cheese, and when I added the leeks and absent-mindedly said 'now we're going to add the onions', he said 'those aren't onions'. And when they were cooked, he asked for a piece of fried leek from the pot because he was hungry.

It's not the government's fault your daughter can't cook! My wife learned to cook before she left home, so did I, and it was our family who did it. There are at least 365 home-cooked meals prepared per year in my house (we'll cook lunch and/or breakfast as well as dinner sometimes), so it's not like there's no opportunity.

If parents are spending a significant amount of time cooking dinner each day in the kitchen, the children are going to go in there as well, and it's really not hard to get from that to actually getting involved. I'm not going to let my son loose with my Chinese vegetable cleaver, but I'm sure a 13-year-old could prepare say a full roast dinner with minimal supervision, and impart useful knowledge on how to make gravy, what kind of potatoes to use for roasting, etc.

DawnW

I was absolutely RUBBISH at cooking (and sewing) at school! (I am over 50), and absolutely hated it, and did not understand why boys did things like metalwork that I might have preferred to do - though thinking about it, I would probably have been equally useless at that, too .

I was a bit on the 'academic' side. I (slowly) taught myself to cook when I got married (when I was 18 - long suffering OH, but he is still here now), as my Mum only ever let me wash up. I am still not very good at sewing, though I can replace buttons, repair a seam that has come undone and put up a hem, all of which are useful skills. However, I do like cooking, and am told that I am a very good cook. I also grow a lot of our own food. My son and both my daughers can all cook, and one daughter is also a very talented needlewoman. I don't know where that came from.

3 kids and 36 years later, I am still a bit 'academic' and it earns my living ... and takes a lot of pressure off of OH. We can all learn in different ways. Nobody really bothered to teach me, but I still learned - and taught my children (and even my OH, a bit).

Tracey_Smith

I've heard lots of people talking about this programme and unfortunately, not all of them in a particularly complimentary way!

They've slated the fact that he's picked on this particular place and made them out to be numpties....which I don't agree with at all.

But this is telly and this is what telly does!

The series will open out as the weeks go by and there will be a much more representational view of what the folks do in that part of the country.

I have no doubt the area he's filming in will be shown in a very positive light at the end, but you will have seen a few numpties on the way - but isn't that the same of anywhere else in the country!

We have our fair share of them here in the south west - which reminds me, Hugh FW got a slating too when he did the chicken out campaign and got a group together from Axminster to look after chickens for a bit....whilst it was astonishing to find some people who were happy to buy a cheap factory farmed chicken, cook the whole thing, cut off the breast and sling the rest in the bin, I am certain there are people all over the country who do the same....but then equally, there are stacks of people (me included) who'll shread every slither of meat off the bone and then cook THEM that up for a nice stock too. It's all about the balance...and this current buzz about cooking something and passing a tip on or sharing the cooking experience with a friend is SPOT ON!!! What a great way to encourage more people into the kitchen to cook some simple nosh.

Anyway, Jamie's won in my view before we go beyond the first programme! He's got the nation talking about it, in whatever context and no doubt, they'll tune in again next week too!

Happy cookin'
TS
x

fizzel81

i know this thread was started a little while ago but ive not been on much

ive such mixed feeings on it all, im far from perfect with cooking in the kitchen etc but when i got married at 19 i had to learn and the only way was to teach myself

my mum was a great cook when we were little when she could be bothered, however i spent alot of time living with my dad when value ranges didnt exsist and the cheapest place to shop was iceland lots of frozen chips chicken nuggets etc though he has got a lot better recently and when i take my boys there now he cooks a fab meal

anyway back to where i was going, when i got married i had to teach myself went and did a first shop at mrt's and it hit me then, had lots of mistakes along the way but also i used to use a slow cooker alot (cannot really go wrong) by the time i had my children i could cook very well

i then found myself as a single mum 3 kids living on benifits and we still ate well, i used to get a veg box and work around that, only went shopping once a month when i got taken to the supermarket, but my house didnt have a huge telly i dont wear lots of gold (and i could go on) so that i dont understand either

i think takeaways cost alot more than proper cooking, the initial start up might be more costly ie building a store cupboard up

i think JO heart is in right place but he should be teaching more basic things to be cooking

right now im glad to be able to cook, ive jut gone back to work, my benifits have all stopped and my working and tax credits all went on 2 weeks of childcare , it means what i have untill its all sorted i can stretch without feeling like me or the children are going hungry

sorry for the ramble

Tracey_Smith

.....that's an inspiration filled posting!

Take aways are much more expensive that buying and cooking from fresh and the simplest meals are the best. I get a little veg box too and that's a big help, because the nearest shops are almost a 15 mile round trip from me, so it works out well not having to drive AND I save the time.

At the moment, I'm big on spuds and cabbage, so tonite, it's bubble and squeak with a nice runny poached egg on the top....:D

Anyway, I just wanted to say your post was great... :j

TSx

Cinny91

sandraroffey wrote: »

no one cooks any more, (if the are under 35) and sadly, my youngest daughter i include in that category. the younger ones just dont want to know. 'oh i cant be ar**d, i'll get a takeout'.

I know where you're coming from with this but it doesn't apply to all.

Me and my boyfriend (i'm 17, he's 20) always make and effort to make our own dinner, no matter how bad the outcome may be *tofu flashbacks* admittedly there have been afew times when one of us has said to the other 'can't we just get a take out?' but it normally goes that the one who complains sits down while the other cooks. And if we want something sweet we'll bake it ourselves, we've even started making our own icecreams and juices.

I think that a generation of younger families living on tighter budgets will affect cooking habits, wanting to cook for themselves ect.

Penelope_Penguin

sandraroffey wrote: »

no one cooks any more, (if the are under 35) and sadly, my youngest daughter i include in that category. my eldest daughter can make a feast out of nothing, but she is a lot older. the younger ones just dont want to know. 'oh i cant be ar**d, i'll get a takeout'. what she spends on take out for three for one meal, i could feed them all for a week.

bring back proper cookery lessons.xxxx

That is such a sweeping generalisation :rolleyes: I know there are many who disagree, but I don't think school is the place for cookery lessons. With everything else that needs teaching they'll have 1 hour/week max anyway. My children have absorbed a load of cooking skills from seeing me and DH cook at home.

Why didn't you teach your younger DD to cook

Penny. x

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

And I was in Sainsbury's today...in the freezer section, next to the bags of Young's Pacific Salmon (1lb rather than 1kg admittedly) at £4 and the Pollock at £1.27 for 4 fillets, there were packs of 6 salmon fillets (MSC certified) that, although priced up at £2, actually only cost 99p at the till. That's less than the price of one saveloy from the chippie!

It's not as hard as some people make out.