Young chefs impress

What about the principles of shopping for the food they are going to cook? Will an hour a week be enough to teach them the delights of seasonal food and introduce the many cuisines from around the world that influence our diet?

As I see it, this subject is too complex to be crammed into an hour. This is not even long enough to prepare and cook a loaf of bread, and if you are going to teach children the basics of cookery, yeast work and pizza-making should certainly be included. An hour is not long enough to cook a steak pie or steamed pudding from scratch either. Even simple stir-fry dishes will need time if the aim of the lessons is to teach children how various ingredients work when mixed together and subjected to heat.

I realise that popular television cookery shows manage to dish up several meals at breakneck speed within the allotted time. But children coming to this subject without any cooking skills may be hard pressed to create their first dishes in just 60 minutes.

Then there's the suggestion that children should bring their own ingredients - a couple of grams of this and a couple of grams of that. As many households no longer stock their larders with bags of flour and other raw materials, the whole thing could lead to unnecessary expenditure and a great deal of half-empty packets that will be left to moulder away in the larder once the lesson is over.

Transporting fresh meat fish or dairy products safely from home to school could prove a problem too. Will these items, which can spoil easily, remain in the school bag until the lesson or be stowed away in a school fridge?

Surely it would be far better to allow the teacher a budget and buy the ingredients in bulk and, if necessary, ask for a token payment from the parents towards the cost of the food the children take home? When I was a child and we were given cookery lessons, the classroom larder was stocked with basic ingredients. If it didn't contain an ingredient we needed we were taught to improvise, just as one would at home.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so negative - at least cookery lessons are now on the curriculum. This is a positive step in the right direction, providing there are enough qualified teachers to take the subject.

Fortunately, there are some youngsters who, thanks to family influence or the culinary skills of the TV chefs, are enthusiastic about cooking and are putting themselves forward for young Chef of the Year competitions.

I was judging just such a contest last week, which was organised and funded by members of the Bicester Rotary Club. The cook-off took place in the Food Technology department of the Bicester Community College, where five very talented young finalists aged from 11 to 15 set about proving that they could produce an appetising meal for two for under £10.

Fellow judge Gerry Pantanella retired chef/patron of Rigoletto's, Middleton Stoney, and I had selected these youngsters from 20 others, who sent in a suggested menu, which they had costed out. We were both amazed at the amount of work the youngsters put in to give their menus a professional feel. Selecting just five for the cook-off was difficult as the entries were so professionally finished. However we finally selected Oliver Richard Masters (11) Tillie Holmes-Smith (15), Jenny Devine (15) and Andrew Pryde (15), who all arrived at the college clutching boxes of ingredients, and plates, cutlery and, in some cases, flowers to dress their presentation table.

Watching them lay out their ingredients and equipment was impressive - they all appeared practised in the art of preparation. One mother attending the event actually admitted that her son had cooked the menu three times that week in order to get it right on the night.

The youngsters had just an hour and a half to prepare the meal. Three had chosen pasta as the main dish; the other two chose steamed salmon and pork steak. One youngster went as far as attempting to make bread, too, but sadly his dough was far too wet and he failed to cook it for long enough. Although it looked good when it came out of the oven the dough was moist in the centre. When I saw him struggling with a sticky dough I was tempted to suggest he dusted it with a little more flour. Perhaps I should have done.

I was also tempted to tell the girl who hurled an orange into the waste bin after removing the zest for her sauce, that the rest of the orange should have been incorporated into her menu, or saved for future use. Teaching children not to waste food is as important as teaching them how to cook.

The winner, Andrew Pryde, who goes on to compete in the county final, was an easy winner with his delicious pasta, and is certainly a chef in the making. He was the one who constantly tasted his sauces and seemed at ease with his ingredients, handling everything with a confidence that comes from knowing their properties. He was a joy to watch, for although he'd written out a worksheet, he only referred to it at the end when bringing the meal together.

Actually, watching all of them was a joy. Although the young cooks were nervous, they appeared to be enjoying the experience. They certainly got great satisfaction from dishing it up at the end and adding those extra swirls and garnishes that TV chefs are so fond of.

Perhaps schools should be encouraged to stage cookery competitions too. These competitions can certainly increase children's cooking abilities, providing they are given sufficient hands-on tuition and enough time to master basic skills.