Kids cooking at school AARGH!

sammy_kaye18

My cooking economics class were pointless in that sense.

i can remember making scones which turend out like bricks but i ate them anyway - were more rock cakes than anything and soup which proptly blew up everywhere - thankfully i progressed mroe at home - in a RAF hosuehold where i had cooking instructions via telephone. Although this also was not a good method

boiled rice in rice cooker - two ingredients, rice and water - i forgot one.

toad in the hole - sausages were cooked , now batter making, (dad on phone giving instructions) ok read the instructiosn first 'yes dad done it' ok blah blah blah, add some milk, ' yep done it', blah blah blah, add the rest of the measured milk. 'what measured milk?' (had been jsut splashing in milk from the bottle not measured out the correct amount id needed - doh!!!

Thankfully again ive progressed - i think kids learn more when they are at home than in their home ec classes - those prices seem a bit much but I would say how abotu doing a homepractice run with your daughter and use say the freezer bag/icing trick and then maybe she will take that tip to school and teach her teacher a thing or two

patchwork_cat

I know exactly where you are coming from. My son has made allsorts of cakes and pastry based food - weeks of it - we have had the puff pastry one and shortcrust too. We are all trying to lose weight and you can guarantee that as soon as my son decides he is not eating anything fattening this week she will tell them to bake a cake.

My son is doing Dt food GCSE

One of my major bug bears is the lack of notice, I will have done the weeks shop and then she will tell them that they are making such and such in 3 days!

Bargain_Rzl

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

boiled rice in rice cooker - two ingredients, rice and water - i forgot one.

Sammy, I'm really sorry to do this to you but :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

(and please tell me it wasn't the rice you forgot )

Belt-tightener_2

I can cook, from the age of 9 I was making full meals for the whole family but the junk we churned out at school was always binned it was disgusting, I would ask the school exactly what you are paying for and what is being made. I object to children cooking from prepared ingredients at school when you can cook from scratch and its a lot cheaper.

choccyface2006

My daughter did food tech as a GCSE subject and told me what she needed ingredients wise the night before if I was lucky and sometimes she would present me with a list before she left for school at 8am! (she is so disorganised) I did have a list of things she would cook at some point given to me at the begining of term so I tried to have staple/non perishable items in already.

She had a catch up week a couple of months ago to complete her practical coursework and had to make chicken cassarole 3 days running and vary the ingredients 5 times each day, what a nightmare! We had cassorole coming out our ears (not really, we ate some and froze some!)

She frequently lost/broke or left at school, dishes, tubs and ingredients even with her name on them :mad: :mad: :mad:

I think that says more about my daughter than it does food tech lessons though :rolleyes:

I do think the lessons are worth it but I agree that they are costly and food often does get wasted. Kids do need to be taught to cook from scratch and not just reheat food though.

Sarah x

newlywed

I did GCSE home ec and had the "practical" lesson just before lunch so usually whatever we cooked was my lunch (unless it was cakes and then they were eaten in between lessons between me and me mates ) If my lunch was horrid, I kinda assumed that was my fault

We had to bring all ingredients ready weighed out though.

Softstuff

School home economics classes were responsible for me believing I couldn't cook for about 10 years. We made a soup so foul it wasn't fit for eating, a pizza using a base so dense even the birds wouldn't touch it and flapjacks that were more like toffee... all of which were perfectly good according to the teacher (my grades showed they were better than most in the class!) My mother was left with the impression that I couldn't cook and didn't encourage me at home since she felt if the teacher couldn't she had no hope.

I accidentally ended up in chefs training at the age of 21, and what do you know, I found I had a talent for it. Though I no longer work in the industry, I cook everything at home and enjoy it. I can't believe that kids aren't yet taught the basics.

Mariel

I'd have sent her in with half a dozen eggs and a receipt! Surely it is the school's responsibility to provide all the equipment. When my daughter does cooking she sends in the ingredients and something to bring the finished product home in. They pay £5 per year for extras such as seasonings and small amounts of things which I think is sensible when it's often a herb or something I wouldn't use if I had it.

germish_se

My kids are in yr 10 but in DT when they are cooking they are not allowed to eat or taste what they have "cooked". How mad is that!!?

Plenty of kids don't learn to cook at home !!! they live off ready meals and take aways so you'd think it would be good if they learned how to cook from scratch in school so we don't get another generation that can't cook - won't cook!!
My two have to cook sunday dinner once a month and help to cook during the week (when I feel lazy)

mioliere

When my DS2 was at school - he's 26 years old now - he was expected to make all manner of weird dishes, most of which were inedible. I noticed after a while that he was never asked to take any meat so I said' when's this cookery teacher ever going to ask you to take in 1lb of mince or something?' He said' oh, that won't happen - Miss is a vegetarian'! I could not believe that the school employed a vegetarian cookery teacher; they should at least have ensured she cooked meat dishes alongside the veggie ones. She had no right foisting her personal preferences on other people's children, especially at the age when they are easily influenced.

Only recently a friend of mine was complaining that cookery lessons at her DD's school now involve just designing things like biscuits, not actually making anything worthwhile. Important skills are being lost and, the way food prices are rising, I wonder how many of the students of these lessons will be able to make a nourishing meal with simple store-cupboard ingredients?