Topic: LEARNING TO COOK

[betula]

Did anyone watch Jamie Olivers programme on teaching people to cook.?

I was genuinely amazed that there are people who fed their children on nothing but takeaways.

I am not surprised that people can not budget their money if this is the way they live.

I think I learnt to cook just by watching my mum when I was young.

The school cookery lessons never taught me much really.

I think cookery lessons should be offered as part of a pregnant woman's health care.

It does not need to be expensive,halls could be rented once a week.Volunteer ladies or men could teach,lots of ladies my age with time on their hands would be happy to teach I am sure.Or would all those elf and safety regs get in the way.?

Any thoughts.?

[asbean]

And you'd have to be CRB'd as well  ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)

[ninnyscrops]

I watched it betula and must admit my jaw was on my lap.

My two weren't that interested in cooking as youngsters but now they can turn out wonderful meals.

Secret was a cookbook every year in the stocking  ;D

Son still rings up at least once a week and asks - how would you do so and so!?!

Ninnyscrops

[elvis2003]

i would def volunteer my self for a project like that

[valmarg]

And you'd have to be CRB'd as well  ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)

Could I have a translation for CRB'd?

valmarg

[ACE]

police check to make sure you wern't a criminal or a pervy.

[Larkshall]

police check to make sure you wern't a criminal or a pervy.

Don't be misled, a CRB check can only say that a person has no criminal record YET.

[ACE]

police check to make sure you wern't a criminal or a pervy.

Don't be misled, a CRB check can only say that a person has no criminal record YET.

Stupid remark!  Have you got a better way?

[pippy]

My OH had to get level 1 military clearance not long ago, at about the same time as I got CRB checked.  Beleieve me, military clearance is far easier to get!!

[honeybee]

I worked for Social Services for many years with young families and their children. About twenty years ago we did a survey asking parents about their diet as we had concerns then and were trying to gather knowledge to see what we could do about it.

The information that came back was mind boggling!

We knew we had to act, so some of the staff offered support, myself being one of them.

We got a room set up with a cooker and some tables, all basic as funds were low, but made it into a pleasant enough area.
We then talked about recipes, simple stuff like shepherds pie, and took it right back to basics, bearing in mind some of the parents struggled to read and had no clue about food and no clue about budgeting.

We would cost the items, shop for them together, make them together and eat them together.
The feedback was always very positive and we did really well, even though parents never seemed to take it further by cooking at home for the children which was the eventual aim of the programme.

It was much the same as Jamie does now I guess, but if we recognised this over 20 years ago, well, it makes me mad about the lost 20 years where there is too little too late?

As a youngster my Mum always cooked from scratch and I would be by her side, watching, learning, chatting, helping, she taught me everything I know and aside from that, it was also my responsibility to assist her!

I think poor eating habits and general laziness when it comes to food and the preperation of it, accounts for so much of what is going wrong nowadays.

[pippy]

I so agree.

Sometimes I get the impression I am living in another world to a lot of the mums around me - and they are not poor, underprivileged people either.  Many haven't a clue how to bake a cake or say they "haven't time" and yet they have time to spend a fortune on ready meals, expensive fruit, pre-prepared salad etc.

I remember a chap I worked with at one time telling me he always ate his main meal in the canteen at work because it was subsidised and "you couldn't make it yourself for £3".  I pointed out to him that I cooked a meal for 4-6 people with raw ingredients for less than that!  I really pitied him and his (young) family that they never sat down to eat a meal together.  I know for a fact his wife wasn't working either.

This credit crunch business reminds me of when I was really little and my mum and I used to batch bake on a Sunday (she worked) so we had things to take us through the beginning of the week.  She would make meat and potato pies, apple pie, egg custard, pasties,shepherds pie that kind of thing.  The end of a roast of a chicken caracas and any leftover veg was used to make a soup.  Nowadays we are more health concious but  the same principles can be used.   It was amatter of using the oven space while it was on too!

[valmarg]

I suppose having been brought up in the late 1940's when rationing was the norm, it is difficult to go back to the privations then, and compare with the profligacy of today.

When it came to a meal, you either ate what was put in front of you, or you went hungry.  My sister always reckoned that if you trod on my foot my head would fly open. ;D ;D

valmarg

[Borlotti]

Some of the ready meals are cooked by top chefs and are better than an inexperienced cook.  Have made my own wine and bread and cakes, but think that shop bought is mostly better than mine.  My children wouldn't eat my pastry, only liked frozen.  Their favourite meal was fish fingers, chips and frozen mousse especially if I danced on the table.  Baxter tinned soups are good, heinz baked beans are good, birds eye frozen peas are good, I grew my own peas and had about enough for 2 people for one meal.  I hear what you are saying but a lot of the food you can buy is good.  I went out with a top chef and he hated making puddings/sweets and said buy them in, but make sure you buy a good brand.  He loved making soups and the main course, but even he made a mistake with his fish soup but because he was a chef everyone ate it and said it was lovely, apart from me who said it was disgusting and he agreed.  He did cook from fresh but some things he thought were just as good tinned or frozen.

[littlebabybird]

i have been asked very recently how  to make rice pudding ::)
and people at school are prepared to pay me silly money to make fairy cakes and birthday cakes

some of you know i have looked after many children, you would not believe the number of them
that have Never eaten vegetables
lbb

[thifasmom]

what boggles the mind is the number of educated people who can't read and follow a recipe ::).

[Mrs Ava]

I did a talk at the kids school today about the soil and it's importance and I took in half a dozen carrots that I had just pulled from the allotment.  The children were gobsmaked....they are covered in mud....so they grow under the ground....I only have tinned carrots.....how can you tell the difference between carrots and potatoes!  The teacher asked if they could keep them and eat them in the afternoon, and as the children came out of school, they all thanked me for the sweet, crunchy, delicious carrots.  I know this isn't cooking, but if children don't have access to the raw ingredients, how are they ever going to learn to cook.   It is a shame.  Ninnyscrops, I love that idea, and thinking back, mum has given me all of my cookery books over the years for birthdays and Christmas.

[Carol]

You learn to cook by example.  If you are brought up with your Mum or Dad cooking you watch and take note.  I remember helping my Mum and Gran to cook from a small child.  I remember being given a wooden peg to help scrape spuds.  Gran didn't want me to cut myself.  As I got older my Mum worked part time and I was encouraged to make the tea for 5.  I was trusted to make a simple tea for Mum and Dad and so it went on.  Same with my husband.  His Mother was  a Night Sister and he made her tea before she left for work.  Wouldn't say the cooking would be anything fancy but you get the basics. 

I am also fascinated by looking into folks trolleys at supermarket check outs.  Its the same food I see every time.  White bread, Pizzas, Crisps and beer.  No bl**** wonder the population is in poor health with weight problems. 

The children of today need help in the Kitchen and if Jamie Oliver can get them interested, great. 

[valmarg]

The children of today need help in the Kitchen and if Jamie Oliver can get them interested, great. 

I certainly wouldn't argue, we need to get cookery off the ready meal shelves and back in the kitchen

The only trouble with Jamie Oliver is his foul language.  His effing and blinding detracts from the message he is trying to get across.  I think he has lost an enormous audience because of this.  Certainly we are not watching.

I may be an old prude, but when my ten year old great niece says that effing and blinding is 'not nice', I think that puts the foul-mouthing into perspective.

valmarg

[posie]

Well I'm proud to say that my kids (both 13) can cook basic meals like spaghetti bolognese, lasagne (although I will admit to using jars for that!), chicken stir fry and most of a roast.  However......I have one HUGE bug bear in relation to their so called cooking lessons at school.  Now when I was at school (and it wasn't that long ago I hasten to add), the parents supplied the ingredients, the school the cooking utensils and everything was done at school, including the measuring, slicing and chopping and the washing up afterwards.  I have very strong memories of the nun's instructing us to wash the cups, the bowls, the small plates, dinner plates, saucepans and then the cutlery in that order, and heaven help you if you didn't!

At my sons school however, they're expected not only to measure everything before they get there, but also to do all the chopping and slicing and provide the cooking utensils (for them, read me).  In the past few weeks I've had to go out and buy pans and tins and dishes that quite honestly I won't need again and that quite honestly in this economic climate and my own personal circumstances I can't afford, because the school won't supply them.  Now I'm no chef, so my slicing and chopping isn't exactly up to any kind of standard, my sons both want to be caterers, but how in heck's name are they going to pass a gcse in this subject without the basic knowledge and experience!!!  Apparently there isn't enough time in the lesson for them to be preparing the food from scratch!!! Where is the sense in that?  I'm not saying parents shouldn't pass on their knowledge but the schools need to be making this more of a priority surely??

[katynewbie]

 >:(

Posie that's ridiculous! I would be straight up to the school to ask exactly what they think they are playing at. What are they really teaching? Is it "cooking as an assembly job" ?

Crikey Me!!

 ;)