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Original poster

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

383 replies

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 15/04/2023 11:09

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).

OP posts:
bellac11 · 15/04/2023 16:11

RosesAndHellebores · 15/04/2023 13:53

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.

Bake an apple?
Make shortcrust?

lol

Im a great cook but never bake apples (bleugh) and I dont eat pie/pastry goods so do neither of those

Who eats like this?

Iyjd · 15/04/2023 16:20

potatowhale · 15/04/2023 13:30

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.

Show quote history

It is about learning to cook. They learn the science behind it too along with other things and one of the NEAs includes a 3 hour practical exam.

ZeroFuchsGiven · 15/04/2023 16:22

Luckygreenduck · 15/04/2023 15:55

@RosesAndHellebores off topic but what's brown sauce? Guessing you don't mean HP sauce...or maybe you do and I need to up my cooking!

Gravy apparently Grin

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

General education General food Secondary education
Iyjd · 15/04/2023 16:22

Whichnumbers · 15/04/2023 13:37

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.

Sounds perfect but don’t send it on the day, send it now. There might well be something in place for them to order ingredients in advance so your child doesn’t miss out on the skills, it will be too late for them to order them on the day though.

JeannieAlogy · 15/04/2023 16:23

There should always be a veggie/vegan option - so I think you'd be quite within the bounds of reasonableness to sub the chicken.
I guess time constraints don't allow making this from scratch but this to me, isn't really cookery as it's just bunging some ready made sauce from a jar over stuff.

Tesco seem to do a big tin (400ml) of coconut milk more cheaply than a small one, but perhaps if a few parents know each other well enough, there is a way to collaborate to make this more cost-effective? Shouldn't need to and I think I'd definitely be feeding back to the school about this as many won't necessarily be able to afford to buy all those ingredients.

Rummikub · 15/04/2023 16:25

Kennykenkencat · 15/04/2023 15:37

In my school if you were no good at sewing then it meant you were crap at cooking.

I actually was really looking forward to
cooking lessons but if your needlework skills weren’t great we were deemed to be too stupid to cook without a huge amount of prepping.
The teacher would spend 2 whole lessons making tea and toast before we were allowed to make tea and toast

i remember making fruit salad and a vomit inducing (literally) Christmas Pudding.

Show quote history

I remember making tea and toast too.

Think we also did cheese on toast. Cauliflower cheese (yuk), fruit salad and cheesecake was my favourite.

Apple crumble with a cooking apple. But mine ended up horrid as I didn’t know you were meant to stew it first.

midsomermurderess · 15/04/2023 16:25

‘Just teeing up this thread for all the posters who are showing up to tell you that £8 is nothing and that coconut milk is an absolute staple of their food shop’. And yet not a single person has said that. I am so bored of you and your type with your silly, idiotic straw men.

ilovesushi · 15/04/2023 16:30

I feel your pain. So glad my kids aren't doing food tech anymore. I ended up sending them in with some but not all ingredients and generally they were able to do swapsies with other kids - have some of my olive oil for your garlic etc - and the teacher also had some of the ingredients. My DS is veggie so I just sent him in with an alternative ingredient like quorn or tofu.

Skybluepinky · 15/04/2023 16:31

If we didn’t like what the meal was, lots of terrible fish based meals we were allowed to cook something else, it was never an issue.

Justalittlebitduckling · 15/04/2023 16:35

I would not be eating chicken that’s been in a school bag or locker half the day 🤮

Bagpuss2022 · 15/04/2023 16:37

I think that’s a ridiculous list of im honest my DD school it’s free but they ask for those able to make a £5 contribution at the beginning of each term

chaosmaker · 15/04/2023 16:37

Shame the lessons are not part of the cooking done for lunch for the school although I understand that stupidly a lot of the catering is now done off site. But that would be a more sensible way of doing it as the school would be buying ingredients anyway and the food produced wouldn't be wasted.
I remember having to do stew and carrying the poxy thing around all day in a basket. Pretty sure some of it got tipped and my school was a long walk away there and back.

JingleBellez · 15/04/2023 16:37

aldi do a kit for 1.75 has the coconut milk, the paste
chicken breast is 2.19 for 2
you'd just need onion, peas etc.

1.75
2.19
___
3.94

plus an onion

Confusion101 · 15/04/2023 16:39

I teach this in Ireland. When I started teaching, I used to buy the stuff that came in bigger packs than required. Then I stopped but I realised I was trying to teach skills and dishes that the students would cook at home, therefore they would hopefully end up using the rest of the packs if they bought them themselves, and I tried to choose recipes that would include some of the same ingredients (e.g. A teaspoon of paprika or something like that). It's an optional subject here so students know the cost implications before they choose it so slightly different there.

chaosmaker · 15/04/2023 16:39

@RosesAndHellebores where do you get compound interest these days?

JingleBellez · 15/04/2023 16:47

ChevreChase · 15/04/2023 12:35

That would really annoy me too. I balked at £6 for something Y8 DS made last term, and he had no intention of eating it, so it's just cooking for the bin/compost.

So much seems pointless in the way Food Tech is done at our school. It's single period, so it has to be something that cooks in 20 mins (when I was at school it was a double lesson) or they bring home uncooked things - like apple crumble - with an instruction on how to bake it at home. Also, the carrying around food all day. I know I can be quite strict about food safety, but making 'savoury rice' in 1st period, blast chilling, and then carrying it around for the next five hours is not good. DS says they haven't been taught anything about basic food hygiene and safety.

I didn't take Food - back in 96 all my mate did was design a pizza box and put stuff on ie details. I did Hostess badge in Brownies and Guides. It's really sad how little children are taught today.

JingleBellez · 15/04/2023 16:48

My first lesson of food tech I was so excited. I can still remember how disappointed I was when we made open sandwiches...(7 yr old me could do this...)

FancyFanny · 15/04/2023 16:49

bellac11 · 15/04/2023 16:02

I think thats expensive considering it would probably only serve 2 people

Show quote history

If that's expensive then what do you cook that's cheaper? I make Thai red curry all the time and those ingredients feed three of us, although I make my own paste so also need fresh ginger, lemongrass, chilli flakes, lime leaves and a red peppe rand I use a whole tin of coconut milk and rice to serve so it probably costs a bit more.

Learning to cook isn't just about learning to eat the cheapest thing you can find like some people on MN think. Not everyone is destitute!

NumberTheory · 15/04/2023 16:50

Legally there should be an option where the school provide the ingredients but the kids don’t get to eat/take home the final product (see the Government’s document explaining to schools what they can and can’t charge for). Though I know very few schools as a matter of course follow their legal obligations over free education when it comes to cooking lessons.

You could try sending that document, pointing out that it’s too expensive and unsuitable (as you say in your OP) and saying, in accordance with the guidance on page 14, you’d like to let them know in advance that you do not want the curry. Technically, your DS should get to cook like everyone else with ingredients they provide but then have to leave the curry at school. Bit of an all or nothing though. Perhaps just ask what the options are if you can’t afford the ingredients because of the waste involved.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/706830/Charging_for_school_activities.pdf

FancyFanny · 15/04/2023 16:52

NumberTheory · 15/04/2023 16:50

Legally there should be an option where the school provide the ingredients but the kids don’t get to eat/take home the final product (see the Government’s document explaining to schools what they can and can’t charge for). Though I know very few schools as a matter of course follow their legal obligations over free education when it comes to cooking lessons.

You could try sending that document, pointing out that it’s too expensive and unsuitable (as you say in your OP) and saying, in accordance with the guidance on page 14, you’d like to let them know in advance that you do not want the curry. Technically, your DS should get to cook like everyone else with ingredients they provide but then have to leave the curry at school. Bit of an all or nothing though. Perhaps just ask what the options are if you can’t afford the ingredients because of the waste involved.

And what would happen to the food if they didn't get to eat it or take it home? Sounds like that way it would likely go to waste.

MissMarplesbag · 15/04/2023 16:52

My ds did a similar curry before Easter and I switched the chicken for a tin of chickpeas and a small pack of spinach (couple of cubes of frozen spinach will do). It was delicious and the teacher didn't say anything, ds explained that a veggie friend was coming for tea.

JingleBellez · 15/04/2023 16:56

The chickpeas is probably healthier!

NumberTheory · 15/04/2023 16:57

chaosmaker · 15/04/2023 16:39

@RosesAndHellebores where do you get compound interest these days?

Do you know what compound interest is?

Pretty much any interest bearing account, including credit card accounts, will have compound interest.

Maraudingmarauders · 15/04/2023 17:00

I'd definitely raise the issue thay chicken breasts would be in a locker or bag for half a day- hardly teaching the kids about food safety!
I'd also be raising an issue of chicken breasts being used. Chicken breasts are a hugely wasteful cut - they should be teach kids to use things like thighs or leg meat in curries which helps to cut down on food waste in society.