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).

Why on earth is food economics not being taught then? When and why did it change?

No idea but I guess it's meant to get people ready for GCSEs in case they want to work in food development. GCSE food technology isn't about learning to cook.

I do agree personally that some home economics should be taught. And also that the school should be paying for supplies - they pay for art supplies presumably.

The government and the dfe changed the curriculum and the requirements for the subject.

I can't see the issue with it.

Garlic - always in the fridge
Coriander - can use it up in other things
Green Thai curry paste- just find a recipe to use it up; similarly the coconut milk
Small chicken breasts - not a deal breaker
Lime - use the other half to marinade something - quite nice with avocado, squeezed over a salad.

I can't see how there would be much waste and it may also introduce families to a wider range of food.

Surely, you have a thermal hot/cold food bag for picnics, packed lunches etc - or at the very least could put a handful of ice-cubes in a plastic bag at the bottom of a.container.

Children in the majority of schools get a free education with books and paper provided. One lesson, probably an option, requires a little.expenditure that can serve as a meal for two. There is only waste if you don't use the left over ingredients and they are far from unusual.

This is the same as the complaints about school uniform - Children have to wear clothes in any event.

Children cost money, education is largely free, if parents object to minimal cost enhancements, then don't have children.

You could make your own curry paste beforehand and take it in a tub. Substitute mushrooms for the chicken and make it vegi.

don't have children

Such wisdom; it must be a glittering burden.

At least they’re actually cooking. I remember doing food tech in year 9 and it all being about the theory of food processing. I think we made biscuits once in the term. If it comes down to it, I think a home economics type course would be much more valuable for the majority of teens. Presumably for those who end up needing proper qualifications they’d need something different to gcse food tech anyway (eg food hygiene certs etc).

i was relieved when my dc dropped food tech. It was so expensive. And alternatives weren’t given.

I would cut out the chicken or substitute but my dc weren’t keen on this.

I think food tech should give examples of substitutions and also encourage pooling ingredients together. I would suggest to my dc that they share the ingredients out. And budgeting should be essential. I very rarely make meals above £1/portion so the list would be way over my budget.

Id write an email to the teacher concerned and explain what you have said here.

Dear Miss

Its really good that you've come up with an interesting meal for the students to make in food tech. Unfortunately I am not in a position to spend £8 on the ingredients (ive checked the prices for everything) as although it could be eaten in most households for dinner, we are vegetarian. Im sorry that on this occasion little jimmy will not be taking part and Im sure you'll understand the reasons with cost of living being so very high presently. Hopefully next lesson dc will be able to participate.

I hate sugar snap peas.

<<<<<misses point of thread>>>>>

My daughter once had to make a chicken pasta dish at school which we supplied all the ingredients for. When she brought it home she told me her teacher had told the class it probably wouldn’t be safe to eat as they had to carry it around all afternoon after making it in the morning so it went straight in the bin! Madness.

Oh god, I am having flashbacks to home economics lessons. I had to carry all the ingredients and a dish to transport it in (no plastic allowed as it wasnt ‘proper’)with all of my school books (pre laptops so at least 4 heavy hardback textbooks) on the train for 45 mins packed in like sardines and then a 2 mile walk at the far end. One memorable week we made ‘kidney and tomato pudding’. We didnt have enough time to finish cooking it in class so the teacher merrily said to just finish it off when you got home.

I lugged it to the train station after school and then had to wait an extra hour as my train was cancelled. Once I finally got on it was starting to emit fumes, by the end of my journey, the whole train carriage reeked of it and even though it was standing room only people were edging away from me. I did consider just chucking it out of the train window but knew that by taking the tin foil off to dump it I might just unleash a worse smell. By the time I got it home it looked and smelled like dog sick and even the dog wouldnt eat it.

I think my Mum had words with the school about the long journeys home that most of the dc had (the catchment area was huge) on public transport and choosing foods to cook that would travel appropriately and not offend other users of said public transport, especially since we were all wearing school uniform and our school was easily identified. We mostly cooked ‘dry’ items after that and I can still make a mean Victoria sponge cake from that lesson.

I'd send him in with a block of tofu to fry and add instead of chicken

Non refrigerated raw chicken for half a day seems a really bad idea...

Surely every child should leave school able to:

Make an omelette
Cook rice
Make a white sauce and a brown sauce
Make simple shortcrust
Bake an apple and/or stew fruit
Make a victoria sponge
Make a tray of biscuits
Learn about storage and re-heating
Learn to follow a recipe

Sadly, many are not learning basic skills at home.

Similarly how to run a bank account, compound interest, the cost of credit, knowledge of mortgages and insurance, basic budgeting along Micawber principles. Probably of more help to the majority of children than quadratic equations and calculating the circumference of a circle.

9GCEs are all very well but DC also need to master basic life skills when they are no longer taught at home.

Not if they are designing food

What odd 1950s recipes. What is a brown sauce?!

It's not the schools job to make up for a lack of cooking skills at home. The kids who know how to do all that already shouldn't have to do it all again in a lesson that would be patronising.

That is ridiculous really. As you said, expensive, unhygienic and inconvenient.

At my DC's school it's fab, we just pay about £10 at the start of the year and food tech is never mentioned again unless they come home with what they've cooked.

I remember having to take in a (mandatory) wicker basket of ingredients on the bus. It couldn't even be exact amount as they wanted to see us measure each thing so I'd have to take extra of each item, it was a nightmare.

@ShirleyPhallus roux blanc/roux brun. Do you never make gravy?

Yes but I call it gravy

I was also wondering what a brown sauce was - glad I’m not the only one!

I don’t understand that list of items at all. The only one I do regularly is cook rice (and I didn’t learn that at school), and have never made or wished to make an omelette, white sauce or baked apple in my life!

I'm in my late 50's and still can't cook rice properly despite many, many lessons from my mum.

Yanbu. The entirety of dd's secondary school our ddogs ate like kings.. Lard in every dish. Never vegi option...

It's strange the the teacher won't adapt. Could you try, if you haven't already, going above them? It just seems unreasonable. Especially with the vegetarian thing.

At our school the children have a small list of ingredients but the school bulk buy the rest and the students bring in the money. The Asda van is a regular on a morning delivering the ingredients so that it cuts costs and waste and the children aren't lugging tuppaware containers of 50 ml milk etc that spill or need storing for the day. Or a single chicken breast! The children then measure out what is needed as part of their learning and lesson.