A bit of a criticism of Good Food Live here as well.

By the very nature of being here, all of us on this site have an active interest in food, and I would imagine most of us can't remember the last time we had a packet meal or something from a fast food joint (any mention of my allergy to the golden arches seems to get deleted).

On GFL they so rarely have "How to make pastry" or "Bake a basic loaf" or "Make a whitesauce" it's not worth a mention. Or often it's "Buy some frozen pastry and roll it out...." I'd suggest Delia's back to basics thing was preaching to the converted, or perhaps those with all the intention but never actually opened the book once they bought it.

A quick ask round my office and people's children are doing Home Ec - the kids are bringing home pizzas, spag bol..... it looks like Home Ec has turned into "How to make the things you can buy out of a packet".

Maybe a step back to more traditional methodologies with an added twist of modern nutritional knowledge and education about the food supply chain would help our future?

I dread the day when our kids can make "Thai style prawns on a bed of wilted wild rocket with a sesame seed and oyster dressing" but don't know what yeast is used for......

Home Ec. may be OK in your area but in Wimbledon they want children to make white sauce with milk and cornflour and pastry with a fork - when I politely query why told that traditional white sauce could go lumpy and rubbing method is messy. My 12 year old disagreed with teacher and did it the right way as I had shown her the basic methods. What is the point if not showing them the simple rules of rubbing in and making a roux, I feel better now after going on!!!!!!!

I was taught how to cook at my mother's side, like lots of people. How to make a white sauce, gravey, pastry etc. She would do the chopping, I would mix etc.

I've taught my own daughter how to cook so she can feed herself properly and cheaply. I'll do the same with my son too. My daughter's school teaches Home Economics and they made proper food. They were also encouraged to plan 3 course, nutritionally balanced menus. Sian found it easy but some of the other girls struggled. The teacher showed them the correct way of making things.

If there is any fundraising at the school, it mainly involves food, with each of the girls brining in a different treat they've made themselves. As the school is multi-cultural the girls get to try different foods.

Some of Sians' friends go to comprehensives where Home Economics is not taught. Some of her friends do not know how to boil an egg.

I feel that the government need to make all schools teach basic food cookery and nutrition or future generations are going to end up as fat bloaters with all kinds of preventable diseases.

Feel a bit like Motherhen now, feel better for that

As I'm coming to the end of my A level course of Design and Technology Food at school, i feel angry that we are told we must make a production plan for a factory and not how to use a recipe. i have been cooking since i was little with my mum and family, and i'm not just saying this but i was the most advanced person in year 7, as my mother didnt plonk me infront of tv thinking i would get under her feet in the kitchen and actually got me involved. Bare in mind that im taking a food subject in the last 2 years i have cooked about twelve times. even the people on my course struggle to follow out a recipe. i read 14% of 10- 14yrs old think the main ingredient in chips is flour and 22% of the same age group dont no how to peel an orange. Children are taught how to make a sauce in factories but when it comes to the kitchen they are clueless. i know 18-19yr olds who think you can cook a whole chicken in a microwave in 8 minutes. i feel that children are going to think meat comes in little plastic boxes and that vegetable come pre pared, it really scares me and i think half my generation are either die of food poisoning or end up obese from mcdonalds. for the hope of the nation i hope they go make to basics.

I agree! My eldest daughter is 11 and the 'food technology' she is doing at school (for a whole two and a half terms) has so far consisted of her input on how it is easier to buy the sauce for a spag bol than make one, and she brought home some shortbread that she made at school. As a point of pride, I have taught myself how to cook since leaving school. My own experience of home ec was sketchy, and I was kicked out of one class for daring to tell the teacher that pastry was half fat to flour, and should be breadcrumbed with the tips of fingers before adding water, not a knife. The teacher thought that by just getting the science bit right then the pastry would flake. She even added the water to the unmixed flour and fat. I admit that as a 14 year old I didn't have much tact, and telling her that she couldn't cook was not the brightest thing to do, but there you go, what did she expect if she did that????!
It seems that in a bid to be 'inclusive to all' they have dumbed down the lessons to such a point that the kids really have not got a clue on how to cook from scratch.
Unforgivable to my mind.
Rant over, I feel better now.

Why they aren't taught the basic like sauce making, pastry etc, they try to promote healthly living but the children wont know how to make heathly food and end up on convience foods.Its just stupid!

I'm a Food Technology GCSE student currently, and we have been tought how to make bread, sauces (pasta sauces to roux based white sauce), pastry and more. However, we also have to make product specifications etc and lots of people my age still choose to use ready mades items instead of making fresh.

Then your school is in the minority as many haven't cottoned on that something needs to be done about it!

Jamie's thing about sorting out school dinners needs to reach into home ec as well, it would seem.
I can't help but think things like doing product specifications sound slike its adding an element of boredom to what should be an artistic and exciting subject, rather than a science.
Good artists understand the science of their paints.....

Surely targetting food in schools included food ec like you said T Bone, at it is an exciting science, but only a minority need to know how to applie it in industraly terms and this is covered in uni???

It's not just 'Home Ec' being 'Food Tech' these days it's every lesson. Ch4 have been running great shows taking modern kids back to the 50/60/70s schools. The fact these kids barely scrape through the tv exams but all walk away from school with A+ results shows just how education is all about lowest common denominators. Pupils can pass their exams with less than 50% & they are even doing away with 'failing' as a concept. The recent scandal over a missing exam booklet shows the depths it has sunk to. Perish the thought that pupils should be expected to REMEMBER any of their coursework for exams.

I think thats quite an unfair comment glasgow1975, as i have worked my bottom off the last 3 months for my exams, we're not arguing how hard the exams but the content of the food lessons. And i wud like to see YOU resitting your exams?!?!?!?

I went back to college to get all my 'missing' qualifications three years ago....it was great fun, but really hard and tiring. I wouldn't have the guts to drop my career and go through all that again. I work in management for a very large hotel chain, at their central offices, and can honestly say that it is not as stressful having corporate meetings, conference calls, and hiring and firing as it was trying to pass those b*&%!y exams. Did it though with top marks for most. good on you chocolate and very good luck, I hope your extremely hard work pays off.

Greebo's Mum

I expect that you had the same type of tuition as myself and in an exam you were deducted marks for bad spelling, punctuation, incorrect use of upper/lower case and grammar.

Barry

I probably did Barry, it is a lot easier as an adult though, as then you don't feel quite so intimidated by the teachers (and know a bit more about self discipline). I do have to say though, that whilst I was partaking in an (abortive) teacher training program, all of my class of year elevens had to memorise their syllabus from over two years of exhastive classwork, coursework, fieldtrips and the basics that they had leant over their school career. All this was done alongside the countless exams, mocks and assessments. I think that the students work really hard, and that they should be given credit for the work they have put in. The problem with 'Food Technology' is the content....NOT the students as mentioned above in this topic!!! I say give the students something to get into a mess with. Bring back trial and error. Or we could have a whole generation of Glyn from Big Brother on our hands.

I apoligise Greebo, but so many people just blame the "youth" as lazy and thats only a minority, and that we all are stupid and the exams are easier. Good on you for doing your exams, i no how easy it is to get out of the mind set for exams as im struggling at the mo!! but it is true that its the content of the course not how easy the exam is. it wud be better if they did the basics and worked up-oh well by we'll see light at the end of the tunnel in schools??

I'm sure you'll do great, you deserve it! It just bugs me when people don't realise the work that the students actually do. I get rather angry at small minded people that beleive all that is written in the papers.

Thanks, well i better go and do some more food revision now!!!

Had my food exam today and thankyou as i had an essay on ethnic cusine and as able to include what we've all said about british food etc. so thanks for your help - fingers cross now for a good result!!!

they are crossed for you chocolate...I'm sure that you would have done ok

thanks- well thanks for the handy points to add about food!!!! a normal 2 page essay turned out around 6 combining all the comments from the boards!!!!

I have almost finished my food tech gcse (just the exam to do). It amazed me at the food some people cooked for their final dish, i cooked a chicken and veg filo pastry quiche parcel (sounds very strange but tasted delicous), but the person next to me cooked fairy cakes! But we got equal marks. But there were a few people in my class who cooked amazing food! They looked and tasted better than some of the stuff i've eaten in restaurants.
I think all students should be taught how to cook simple things, like cheese sauces and pasta (can you beleive that some kids don't know how to boil pasta!), if they can cook for themselves, they are more likely to save the money and cook good healthy food and start to enjoy cooking.

My hairdresser told me for her A level food course work she peeled of a label from a jar of bought curry sauce told the teacher she had made it from scratch and just bottled it, and she passed the course. Which irrates me as i've just finish a 8 month piece of course work working on it every day then someone in my class did rushed job in a month and got a few marks less than me. JaynieRaevn its not fair and your right that not just the people who carry on doing food subjects should learn how to cook- shud be complusary like PE!

i have nearly finished my food GCSE i only have the exam left to do today!!!!!!!!! and i have found it brilliant doing food at school we have learnt so much, such as thickening sauces, pastry, raising agents inh things like scones, done experiments in pastry like trying out different amounts of flour nd fat nd using different fats to see what the outcome is nd if we as the food students can tell which one is which by tasting!!!!! but also we were allowed to come up with new dishes and develop them aswell which was fun!!!!!!!!!
personally i think that food technology should b taught in all schools and its not hard to cook once you've learnt the basics and got a good cookery book!!!!!!!!!!! because it amases me how some people dont cook and dont know the basics so they are living on take aways and ready meals every day which is why there is the problem of obesity in the country!!!!! or if food technology cant be taught in lessons at primary schools and or secondary schools then there shoud be after school food maybe once or twice a week where you make fun things like cakes nd pies then go on to make things like pasta sauces!!!!!!!!

I agree pretty in pink, your right and to make myself sound like an old women- your lucky and not all schools are that good. good luck with your last exam - and hope that the government listen to you and do sum thing about it!!