I'm a bit miffed about this Food Tech ingredients list

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

Not feeling brave enough for AIBU, and I'm sure the teacher has her reasons, but this is what DS needs to take to school next week. He's 14/Y9, do not into GCSE course yet, and food tech isn't one on his options. Also, he has food tech after lunch, and has to carry his cooking around for the rest of the day, as the fridges are full of heat the morning lessons have made. OK for scones, but for chicken?

Here is the offending ingredients list:

Thai Green Curry - 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, 80g sugar snap peas, 2 small chicken breasts, 30ml Thai green curry paste. 200ml coconut milk, ½ lime, small bunch coriander.

My concerns - there's about £8 worth of stuff there, many of which (curry paste, coconut milk, coriander) come in bigger packs than required. That doesn't seem to be considerate of the CoL crisis - it's a big standard academy comp in a not-particularly affluent area.

Also - no veggie alternative ingredients offered - so half our household wouldn't eat the results anyway.

DS is not matey enough with anyone in his FFT class to suggest sharing ingredients. Expensive ingredients!

I'm delighted that the school is teaching the kids to make something other than scones and pizza, but there are so many cheaper curries to mark in an hour! They could start by making the curry paste! Or school providing (and charging for) the ingredients the kids won't need need "all" of.

(DS's previous school/DD's school charge for all FFT and RMT ingredients and materials at the start of the year, abs supply everything. I appreciate limited kitchen space doesn't always make this possible).

That sounds good in theory but in reality I think it would be hard to buy bulk ingredients that would suit everyone. In my multi cultural school, some children would only want to use halal meat, as one example. Also, you have vegetarian children, vegan children, children with allergies, lactose intolerance etc.
In the end it seems safest to ask everyone to bring in ingredients that parents are happy for them to use & that can be adapted to suit individual requirements.

@Twiglets1 perhaps that's why it's better for teaching cooking to be done at home. The variety of foods, meals and dietary needs that families have these days means there isn't really a set of "meal basics" that would be relevant to everyone.

Needmorelego

We not only have pupils that don't now how to cook, and have never been taught at home, but ones that don't now how to wash up, clean areas or have a notion of basic kitchen hygiene.

Exactly

@Twiglets1 @FrippEnos the issue is schools can't (shouldn't?) be responsible for teaching everything.
But...on the other hand - things like hygiene, washing up, tidying up etc should be standard from Reception Class. All Reception children should be washing their hands before eating, tidying up the classroom, washing paint pots after a painting session, making sure anything that is recycling put in the correct bin, putting things away after use etc.
This should be a standard part of the school day - everyone tidying up the classroom ready for the next day.
If this is done everyday from Reception upwards then no child would be able to claim they don't have the "knowledge of basic hygiene and washing up skills" because they will have been doing it every school day since they were 4.

Pity you’re not responsible for Education in this country 😂

@Twiglets1 I know.....I'd get rid of a lot of pointless crap (SATS, having to do far to many GCSE exams, uniforms....) and make schools a much nicer place where children are proud of their classrooms and want to be there.
Not sure how I would do that though 🤔

I think its fine as long as there is safe storage and the lesson is before lunch otherwise its just a health hazard.

That's a really rubbish idea. It shouldn't be defrosted in a school bag and needs to be defrosted fully before cooking.

In my school there are lots of fridges in the Food Tech rooms. Pupils can use these to store food in until the lesson.

You could say that about any curry. Its a standard meal. It's not that unusual. Sure it's not pasta and it's not the cheapest but it's not that expensive. It's good to have variety.

Why shouldn't they teach food tech they teach resistant materials and textiles hopefully

Apologies if this has already been suggested but could you make the vegetarian alternative with the leftover ingredients he doesn't need to take to school?

@potatowhale schools could teach cooking basics but in the earlier years more 'fun' cooking of foods that most people do eat (ie cupcakes, pizza etc) which would include kitchen safety and hygiene.
Then it can be taken as an option for those that want to learn to cook more complex meals, enjoy cooking, think they might want to go into the food industry later in life.

I would get a Thai cooking kit from aldi or elsewhere. It's got the paste and coconut milk. None branded is less than £2 from aldi. Morrisons have sadly stopped selling their fab one.

With regards to the chicken it's disgusting to not have it in the fridge.

Also a Thai curry made from a paste is really basic cooking and teaches them nothing. Cupcakes and pizza would teach them more.

@DedicatedFollowerOfFashion84 it's the building blocks of cooking sweet items. If you are more into savoury than that's ok. But think about it - pastry for pies you have to learn about keeping it cool, kneading etc. sweet cakes you learn about creaming butter and sugar, adding eggs so they don't curdle, cakes rising etc.

Whilst the things you’ve said are true… it doesn’t change the fact that I wouldn’t class them as essential life skills and most people manage just fine without them. I don’t know that pies etc are common fare for young people now. Curries, stir fries, pasta dishes seem to be what people are largely moving towards. It’s perfectly possible to have a balanced an varied diet without knowing how to do the things PP mentioned. Who brings a tray of biscuits with them? What’s the occasion these days that would require that?

I'd get a kit too, even though we have coconut milk at home, it's just easier to transport if they can't arrange to share ingredients in a group. I disagree that it doesn't teach them anything though. You can't feed a family with cupcakes and a kit is a good way to get started if you don't want to buy a lot of ingredients to start out.

Some adults can't make a nutritious meal with a recipe kit. My colleague thought that since we ate a lot of curries, my child wasn't eating vegetables! They must have been making curries with just a jar of sauce, an onion and chicken.

Yes, these are the kinds of foods we eat too. The only 'pie' I make is a keema cottage pie so no pastry. Sweet items I make are stewed fruit (I can make a crumble but prefer it without) and flapjacks. I don't make cakes as there are only two of us and my grandmother enjoys making them for when we visit.

They do pretty much. Just they move on to more advanced stuff. There's no point cooking pizza all the time. It's like with GCSE maths they have to build up to it in y7 8 and 9

I would send him in with ingredients and a recipe for a veggie curry and I’d contact the school/teacher and tell them in advance you are veggie and that will be what is happening. If they refuse I’d ask them to provide a simpler vegetarian option. And I wouldn’t give in. Agree it’s ridiculous! X

@potatowhale to be honest from what I can tell most kids only get about one term of cooking in the 3 years of lower secondary (Yr7 - 9) anyway.
(My daughter isn't in mainstream so I might be wrong)

It's ridiculous- especially expecting non vegetarians to cook meat.

I used to send double the ingredients all weighed out by me because they wasn't a skill school were teaching because was always one child whose parents hadn't supported them in sourcing the ingredients. One teacher refused ti let a DD share and the child got a detention anyway.

The biggest nonsense was when I had to purchase a particular tin so DD could make a Bakewell tart. The total with ingredients cost £12. Bloody ridiculous.

Yes so makes sense for them not to be doing pizza and pasta all the time

You need to read the thread you're responding to.

The issue isn't about the type of food. It's about ingredients where you're expected to supply an amount that is significantly less than the smallest unit you can buy - it's wasteful to expect every family in the class to buy a jar and send in a bit of it since the left over partial jars are going to go to waste in a lot of households.