Is all school cookery a bit crap?

[notatwork]

..or is it just the schools my brood have been to?

Youngest now doing cookery. Year 9.
They make a single dish for one person, so we have to provide part packets of stuff we wouldn't normally use/with a short shelf life (eg single sheet filo, or 100ml cream when the smallest tub you can buy is 150ml, or 2 mushrooms). They make it immediately before lunch but aren't allowed to eat it then, so I provide pack up/lunch money while a meal for one congeals in a fridge and then gets carried home on the bus. The recipes are a bit crap: one chicken breast, a stock cube, an onion, 2 mushrooms, 2 tbs curry paste from a jar containing 4 tbs, aforementioned cream and a bounty bar (wtf) to make something described as 'creamy curry' (half-arsed pseudo korma more like).
Part of me wants them to allow us to scale up to a family sized meal (we provide all the ingredients anyway) like when I was at school, but as some of the food is pretty grim I don't think we'd eat it. It's such a faff and a waste. They don't teach them the techniques to make pastry or what spices go in a curry, and frankly the bounty bar curry has tipped me over the edge.
I know it's a rant but I'm tired of trying to use up stuff to avoid waste (3 sheets of filo and 50mL single cream for example), when the stuff produced isn't nice by the time it makes it home anyway. It's hardly inspiring DC to engage with cookery is it?
Is it me? Or is it just round here (5 DC through 3 schools all similar), or is it the same where you are?

Bounty bar!!!!! Grrr!!

It's not you, it's ridiculous. I remember my sister moaning to me about the list of out of season fruit she had to take in so DNiece could make a fruit salad during a 'cookery' lesson. It was something like one orange, one apple (not too bad), 6 strawberries, handful of blueberries and one kiwi fruit and she was on a tight budget, they didn't really eat fruit that much, and she couldn't find loose kiwi fruit anywhere.

The school should supply the ingredients and DC take in money, especially for the things like filo pastry, cream, curry paste, spices, that not everyone might have in or use regularly enough to justify buying. The costings should be part of the exercise, along with sensible substitutions/using stuff up etc. Eg I use full fat Greek Yogurt instead of cream in curry and it's fine, I also use it instead of sour cream on chilli or similar. Therefore I use yogurt for breakfast and savoury meals and only have to buy one thing instead of 3.

But why on earth are they not allowed to eat the food they have cooked for lunch, especially seeing as they make it just before lunch. I would love to hear the reasoning behind that bonkers rule.

I sent £15 in with my dd every September and she doesn't need a single thing sent in for the rest of the year. She's made some great things over the past couple of years. Usually they do it in groups of four then divide everything out. They can eat it for lunch or bring it home. Its been great for her, I've noticed a huge improvement in what she'll try food wise and her general interest in food. All their pastry is ready made but I have no issue with that at all, it's more than she sees at home. I think her favourite part of it was when they had to research and make a dish from a different country (that's the only time she needed her own ingredients).
She's not continuing with Home Economics past June and she'll miss it but she still has her recipe sheets . We're in NI.

Ours has been rubbish. Everything from badly copied recipes to food that spoils before it gets home. At least we can buy eggs instead of bringing them in.

Yr7 ds has made some decent food this year. Nothing fancy but I think it’s been a good start. Chilli, veg curry, veg stir fry, tomato tart thing, burgers, pasta salad. Serves 3/4 portions. All totally edible and I’ve scoffed the lot.

Bounty bar curry though 🤮

Ours is pretty good, they make a point of using mainly stuff you will already have and suggest you make substitutions as you see fit. They also suggest things like chopping veg/grating cheese at home to save time. They provide oil, salt, pepper, dried herbs, chilli powder etc. DD has made some really nice meals and her skills have improved quite a bit.

Do they pick the chocolate off or does the whole bar go in?

Some kormas (or is it passanda) are quite sweet so I can see the middle of the bounty bar working OK if you like that sort of curry, which I don't, but I think the chocolate might be a step too far.

Implants That level of engagement is just what I would have wanted for my DC. Plus not having to provide ingredients and no food waste is brilliant!

Apparently the chocolate goes in too.
But I would have thought that the double brandy would have caused more issues in schools than the chocolate bar:

www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/5895736.bung-a-choc-bar-in-the-curry/

How on earth does the bounty bar get used.
Yes school cookery is odd.

At our school parents pay (except PP) and school buys in all ingredients.

We pay a fee, something like £10 for S1 & 2 and they make basic stuff, then it was £60 for dd as she chose it as a subject and she cooks 2/3 times a week, if she has HE first thing in the morning they make a breakfast type thing they can just eat and one day they have it just before lunch and they make something that can be eaten as lunch although today she has just made chocoate brownies so i hope she doesnt have them for lunch

Ours can eat theirs as well and a lot do.
Or collect it at lunchtime or the end of school

YANBU. DS made a pasta bake and the list of ingredients said pasta twists or bows. I wondered what they actually learnt in lessons.

Ours ask for money at the beginning of the year which covers all ingredients. Much more sensible. She's made quite good stuff too, stir fry, chilli, Swiss roll.... She ate all of it for tea the day she made it.

Just gonna throw it out there.. I made a bounty korma when I was in school and it was amazing.
Seems crazy that you have to send in ingredients and dc can't eat it for lunch though!

We paid online at the start of the year when our son did cooking, the school buy in bulk so it's very easy. I think part of it was to save parents money but also kids were forgetting ingredients. I was always a bit suspicious of the meat quality so I would have preferred to buy my own. There was quite a few times where he forgot to pick it up at the end of the day or didn't eat it if it was using something like low quality mince. The meals probably would have fed 2 people but when they made cakes they probably served 4 or 5.

A bounty bar in a korma 😂 what next satay chicken with a snickers in it?

notatwork I was surprised at how painless the whole thing was tbh. Paid the money and that was that. She would have made a much high percentage of dinner type food, there was precious little baking/ dessert type dishes. They didn't cook every week, they covered health/basic economics/ bank accounts etc as well. Their last topic before the Easter break was religion and food - so they were learning about religious restrictions in diet etc - she really enjoyed that too.

Dd has made some lovely things at school and we look forward to cooking weeks.
She’s a vegetarian so adapts the recipes with the agreement of her teacher, we’ve had cheesy leek pie ( brilliant pastry), lentil chilli, Tofu tacos with homemade salsa and avocado, strawberry crumble just to name a few and they’ve all been delicious
They do a lot about nutrition and hygiene as well and she isn’t doing it for GCSE but it’s definitely helped her learn to cook

I've been really impressed with cookery food tech. It's got ds1 more involved in cooking, and proud of what he can create that I haven't had to be involved with. I think the bounty bar sounds like a brilliant idea - getting kids imaginations going to think about how you can use things differently and unexpectedly. I love that. He does have it in the pm and allowed to take stuff straight home from class eat it all on the way home so that's fine by me too.

OP, you sound a bit miserable tbh.

There was quite a few times where he forgot to pick it up at the end of the day or didn't eat it if it was using something like low quality mince.

A teenager wouldn't eat 'low quality mince'? How very mumsnet.

I think we should have mumsnet awards in different categories. I'm sure that could win something.

Hoppinggreen I just asked my dd about vegetarians in the class and they did exactly the same thing. There were 4 in her class and they worked as a team.

DD2 is in y9. Everything (without exception) she has made has tasted really good and we have eaten as part/whole of our evening meal.

It has been clear what they are learning for each meal, even if it is just slicing things, or practicing presentation.

I am a bit miserable . She's the last of the brood and my sense of humour has worn thin.

DD isn't being engaged by the dishes being bodged together and there is too much waste. It isn't the food tech aspects I have an issue with really, just the food itself and the single portion/you can't eat it/bring in 1/3 of a packet of something you won't use again ethos.

DS loved cookery: first thing he ever made was a sandwich. Spent weeks doing nutrition, the physics, designing packaging etc. They let them 'design' their ultimate sandwich do all the peripherals (great!) until the list of ingredients came home and he'd chosen to make a pork crackling and barbecue sauce sandwich. As he'd already CADCAMed the packaging I actually roasted a shoulder of pork the night before so he had crackling for the bloody thing, which then he got a terrible mark for because it was nutritionally crap. Still, he had the theory of nutrition, even though they hadn't actually given guidance on the application of nutrition. I've had 5 DC go through this nonsense: all of them could/can make a meal anyway, but a class which actually helped them to cook would be great!