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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

School cookery lessons (and inedible food)

75 replies

OublietteBravo · 01/10/2015 19:53

DD (year 7) is doing cookery at school this term. Every week we get a shopping list. Every week we get something inedible that goes straight in the bin.

Now this isn't DD's fault. It is down to the fact that every recipe contains raw onions (or sometimes raw Spring onions). I cannot eat any type of raw onions - they give me terrible indigestion. No one in our household likes raw onions.

I've tried excluding the onion (or spring onions) from the ingredients I send in. But whatever she makes still contains them (either provided by the teacher or 'borrowed' from another child).

WIBU to complain and insist that her creations must be free of this evil ingredient?

I've now thrown out 4 weeks worth of her food - and next week looks like it is going to continue the raw onion theme and contain olives - one of the few foods I detest

OP posts:
nokidshere · 01/10/2015 20:31

Just leave them out? We always swap the ingredients with ones we like. Your idea of a pasta salad would be hugely different from my idea of one. A note in her planned to the teacher saying no onions should be plenty.

Hulababy · 01/10/2015 20:33

pippitysqueakity - DH and DD enjoyed their risotto. I couldn't eat the one she chose to make - I don't eat meat.

Doyouthinktheysaurus · 01/10/2015 20:34

I would just leave out the onion and send in a note explaining why.

Ds1 has been doing food tech and raw onion hasn't featured once, thank god.

My mum used to bin most of what I cooked when I did home Economics, I was a bit gutted TBH!

I've eaten most of what ds1 has cooked. I'm sat here feeling really bloated after today's creation of apple crumble. It was gorgeous actually but I don't normally do puddings.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 01/10/2015 20:35

I would send a note in to the teacher explaining that you have an intolerance to onions and asking of your dad can omit them from the dishes she cooks.

Yes, your dd could just say, "I can't use onions - they make my mum ill" - but it isn't always easy for a child to speak up to a teacher, and some teachers aren't very approachable.

johnthepong · 01/10/2015 20:35

I'm a food tech teacher and would have no problem with someone leaving put the onions.

I imagine they are doing cold dishes as have not yet progressed to using the cooker. It takes a long time to "train" them in correct knife skills, the routines necessary in food, and teach them how to wash up!

johnthepong · 01/10/2015 20:36

Leaving out even!!

Neddyteddy · 01/10/2015 20:36

Rather then complain, can't you just email the teacher explaining the situation

OhSoggyBiscuit · 01/10/2015 20:41

My food tech projects barely even made it home. I was a greedy sod as a teenager.

Sadik · 01/10/2015 20:43

I'm surprised it's a problem to leave them out. DH is dairy allergic, so dd has had to swap out ingredients in lots of her food tech recipes. She got a higher grade specifically because - and I quote - she was 'adapting her food appropriately to meet the the needs of her target audience' Grin

hollieberrie · 01/10/2015 20:50

*I've worked in many food tech lessons. NEVER eat the food.

Seriously*.

This. I run the lunchtime cooking club at school and i would only ever eat from adult made batches.

GruntledOne · 01/10/2015 20:51

Why do you want to complain? The teacher can't work out by telepathy that you can't eat onions. Just send a note in explaining that and asking if they can be left out.

limitedperiodonly · 01/10/2015 20:53

The teacher sounds deranged.

Raw onions and next week olives?

I'd revolt too

Sadik · 01/10/2015 20:53

Why, hollieberrie? DD cooks a lot at home - what makes food cooked at school worse? We've eaten all her productions to date, and no-one's been poisoned yet . . . very tasty they have been too, on the whole.

DinosaursRoar · 01/10/2015 20:54

Does her dad live at home? Is he allergic to onions or just not like them? If it's just not like, then he should be a proper grown up parent and eat the food his DD has made, telling her it's delicious.

Honestly, be careful about not turning you inability to eat certain foods that limits your diet into fussiness in your DD that will limit her diet without need as an adult. (My mum has a selection of allergies some real, some fake to cover her dislike of foods it took me a long time as an adult to try the stuff that was presented as 'horrible stuff' as a child because mum couldn't/wouldn't have it.)

Marmitelover55 · 01/10/2015 21:00

Oh dear we always eat DD1 (year 9)'s creations for supper. They are usually nice but last weeks spaghetti Bol was nearly raw Why shoddy we eat it f do I not want to know the answer to this. We will might be having her pasta bake tomorrow....

Original poster
OublietteBravo · 01/10/2015 21:07

DH doesn't particularly like raw onions either (mainly because I avoid him if he's been eating them Grin). He's not around for the evening meal during the week as he has a long commute (DD and DS are already starving when they get home from school - I can't make them wait 2 hours before they eat).

I don't think any of us are particularly fussy eaters (raw onions aside). DD doesn't like bananas, DS doesn't like cooked cheese or ice cream, DH doesn't like blue cheese, and I don't like olives or coriander. It isn't really a huge list.

OP posts:
limitedperiodonly · 01/10/2015 21:45

It's not fussy. It's about being edible.

The only thing I ever brought home that we were unable to eat was a winter vegetable stew.

We tried it but it went straight down the loo.

It wasn't to do with my cooking - though I'm no Michel Roux - it was just because they wanted me to cook swede and carrots but allowed two hours, including taking your coat off and peeling all the vegetables and chucking it into the pot and bringing it up to the boil time.

We ate everything else, and as I said, I'm no Michel Roux. We did things such as chicken casserole, scones, cheese straws or spotted dick. Pineapple upside-down cake was good.

We made minced beef and our teacher said we could eat it as it was or put mash on it at home for a shepherd's pie. But she didn't get us to make it because reheated mash that had been carried around all day would have been nasty and a waste of effort and money.

Notoedike · 01/10/2015 22:01

We eat everything that comes home....often make it part of the dinner. The dcs love it and they are good cooks. It would be worth a note to the teacher for us because thanking your dc for cooking your dinner and seeing the look of pride on their faces is a beautiful thing, imo.....and some evening when you are dog tired and they can not only cook but feel good about it, is a happy day for all.

Maladicta · 01/10/2015 22:04

Ds2's first food tech effort came home this week - an autumny risotto which was delicious.

If something comes back with raw onions wouldn't you just cook it a bit more or pick them out?

Original poster
OublietteBravo · 01/10/2015 22:23

I'm not sure the other ingredients would stand up to cooking (warm cucumber anyone?). I'm really intolerant of raw onion - a single piece will give me horrible indigestion, so I'm not prepared to risk trying to pick all the bits out (surely not putting them in is much simpler).

I'm going to email her teacher and ask that raw onions are omitted from all future dishes prepared by DD, and explain this is due to a food intolerance at home.

Risotto sounds lovely - how I wish DD was making something like that.

OP posts:
limitedperiodonly · 01/10/2015 22:37

What do children cook now? My mother was not cruel but there was no way she'd have inflicted something raw and revolting on the rest of the family just to spare my feelings.

I doubt if many of the other mothers would either. There was an inquest after the winter vegetable stew debacle and so there should have been. It was a bloody waste, not to mention the fact that it leaked all over the bus.

She didn't blame me. She blamed the 70s proto-veggie who was standing in for the regular teacher.

I used to have Domestic Science all morning on a Wednesday and if it was savoury that would be an evening meal for me and a snack for my dad and then he'd eat a main meal.

If it was something like a jam roly poly it would reheat for four people.

Mmm. Jam roly poly. Apples cored then with the middles stuffed with sultanas, cinnamon and demerara. Then blanketed in suet pastry and baked with a loose jacket of foil. Mmm.

Custard Mmm

OwlinaTree · 01/10/2015 22:39

They don't appear to have cooked anything in that list! Bet she's really good at chopping stuff note!

I made pineapple upside down cake at school (over 20 years ago). I've never made it since. Never been served it anywhere ever. I'm quite pleased children are still making this random cake at school.Grin

OP, email the teacher and explain.

JawannaDrink · 01/10/2015 22:41

it was just because they wanted me to cook swede and carrots but allowed two hours, including taking your coat off and peeling all the vegetables and chucking it into the pot and bringing it up to the boil time

2 hours is more than enough time for even the very slowest of cooks to peel and cook swede and carrots. How long do you think they need to boil for?

OP, you're making a real meal out of a non issue, as everyone else has said (and was fairly obvious to anyone) you just don;t send the onions., and tell your child not to add any from anyone else. How hard is that to work out?

Gileswithachainsaw · 01/10/2015 22:43

cooking? sounds more like assembling and a complete waste of time.money and food.

there's a serious problem with the "recipe" if no onion means it's no good. with teh exception of coleslaw it's perfectly possible to leave it out. send in a letter, tell your dd to tell the teacher and refuse to use them.

and request they actually cook

Original poster
OublietteBravo · 01/10/2015 22:43

I suppose they cooked the rice, and will be probably over cooking the pasta.

I think we might escape the week after that - they are making something for the open evening I bet that won't contain raw onion

OP posts: