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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To find food tech irrationally irritating?

71 replies

JustBeingJobless · 13/03/2018 18:02

Ds is yr 7 and has just started food tech. I’m now in possession of a shopping list for ingredients for this week, which will cost me over a fiver, and will create a meal that he won’t even entertain due to containing onions which he can’t stand! Not to mention the raw ingredients festering in the bottom of his school bag all day before they even get to the lesson. Grrr..... just seems like a total waste of money, and, as they’re using a bloody jar of Dolmio (a small jar, which I know they don’t sell at Aldi, so means a special trip to the co-op), not really teaching them how to make a sauce anyway. I know it’s a “life skill”, but I begrudge paying an extra £5 on my shopping bill every week (only normally spend £50ish for an entire week as on a tight budget) when the chances are it’ll end up in the bin anyway!

OP posts:

MatildaTheCat · 13/03/2018 18:08

YANBU simply because the phrase ‘food tech’ gives me the rage. It’s cooking ffs.

A friend teaches this amongst other things and the ingredients issue is difficult. However learning to open a jar of sauce doesn’t tick many boxes in education really.

HumphreyCobblers · 13/03/2018 18:11

I understand that there are time limitations and space issues when planning cookery lessons. But a jar of dolmio FFS.

Original poster

JustBeingJobless · 13/03/2018 18:12

Yes, food tech suggests to me learning about what foods we need and a balanced diet, not emptying an overpriced jar of sauce over some extra lean mince!

OP posts:

jayho · 13/03/2018 18:13

Ha ha! Just got on and glared furiously at the pot of 'ragu' no one will eat!

I feel your pain

Original poster

JustBeingJobless · 13/03/2018 18:15

Glad I’m not the only one I have friends who actually seem to enjoy gathering ingredients together for their kids to burn at school. I’d rather buy a bottle of wine the money personally!!

OP posts:

Arapaima · 13/03/2018 18:16

We’re a family of pretty good eaters, but none of us made much of a dent in DS1’s big pot of homemade coleslaw last term. I hate throwing food away

SneakyGremlins · 13/03/2018 18:17

I refused to bring in ingredients I didn't like. Not like they could force me! Maybe he could miss out onions?

Graphista · 13/03/2018 18:30

It's better than dds school was on this - they "taught" them to make bloody sandwiches!!! And pizza (ready made base, purée for the "sauce" ready grated cheese - I kid you not!)

I enjoy cooking and by this point dd could do most things apart from a roast (she gets flustered with timings)

I'm old, when I went to school we were taught properly to make from scratch eg pomodoro sauce using fresh tomatoes, making roux from scratch...

We had to meal plan and show we'd included all food groups too! One week would be planning and discussion the next would be execution.

Did have a couple of disasters (didn't roll my Swiss roll quick enough and it cracked, hollondaise sauce split - not made one since!)

With the current issues (economy and obesity) I think teaching kids to plan and execute cheap healthy meals should be the focus (I dread to think the salt and sugar in jar sauce alone!) especially as not all kids are coming from homes where healthy freshly cooked food is made (don't mean you op sounds like you're on the ball).

One thing my mum did do well is teaching us all to cook and to be confident cooking (hollondaise breakdowns aside ) so that USUALLY when something goes wrong it can be rescued.

My dd is quite tunnel vision personality wise so convincing her that no you DON'T throw out icing that's too dry it CAN be rescued with a little heat or added water took some doing.

Parents SHOULD be teaching healthy cooking and eating but not all are able (for a variety of reasons)

CrispsForTea · 13/03/2018 18:36

YADNBU at the jar of dolmio - if they have to do it, they may as well do it properly, and it hardly takes much more time putting a tin of tomatoes and a few herbs in...

I like SneakyGremlin's idea of customising the recipe so that he likes it - no sense in putting onions in if it means a good meal will go to waste. Plus that will teach him that cooking for himself means he can cook it how he likes it, and he will probably get more out of it (plus all you'll have to do is reheat it so no cooking for you on food tech nights!)

Rewn7 · 13/03/2018 18:41

Jam buns week was good.

DD can put her ingredients in the school fridges first thing, then get out for lesson so it’s not too sweaty 🤢

Original poster

JustBeingJobless · 13/03/2018 18:45

Yes I wouldn’t mind if they were teaching healthy cheap meals. £5 for the ingredients for one meal is horrendous in my book!

OP posts:

Lifeaback · 13/03/2018 18:46

A jar of dolmio? Is that what our kids are being taught these days? No wonder obestity and lack of food knowledge is such an issue

RE money, It seems like maybe a better way to do things would be to ask parents for a contribution at the start of the year and bulk buy ingredients for the kids to cook with. Must be really frustrating, particularly for parents who are struggling for money to have to pay for meals which they most likely won't eat

Lilyhatesjaz · 13/03/2018 18:46

Why not get a normal sized jar of sauce take a small amount to school and use the rest at home you can freeze it to use later

Sparklesocks · 13/03/2018 18:48

We did it at school, was always such a stressful rush for my poor DM trying to get all the ingredients the night before.
At the end of the term we could make whatever we wanted as long as it matched the ‘healthy lunch’ brief, and one girl opened a tin of Heinz tomato soup

AlbusPercival · 13/03/2018 18:48

They should stop food tech all together. Very few people will work in the industry and frankly if they do they can specialise later.

Should be replaced with home economics. How to cook actual food from scratch on a budget, basic nutrition actual economics for the home, budgeting compound interest etc, and basic childcare/ development. Much more useful.

toffee1000 · 13/03/2018 18:52

I did food tech for three years. The first year was some basic dishes eg risotto, scones etc. No Dolmio though!
The second and third years were more focused on designing new dishes according to a brief, which is the “tech” side of it, you do similar in Product Design and Textiles (sewing). Year 8 was Italian themed, and year 9 was “layered desserts” (I kid you not). My brother didn’t even do food tech as they didn’t have a kitchen.

It is daft, I agree.

Castieldeansam · 13/03/2018 18:53

I would also get him to omit the onions if he really doesn't like them. As for the dolmio, doesn't also do a passata instead. I don't see the difference especially if you add a teaspoon of herbs (only if he like it). My eldest cooked bread at school by adding water to a packet mix!!!! Sadly the lessons are not long enough to teach/show and cook anything properly, they have to be careful of food poisoning also!!!

carbuncleonapigsposterior · 13/03/2018 18:57

Going back 15 years or so now, my son was asked to bring in the ingredients for a Cesar Salad, they didn't even make the dressing it was in a sachet, and arrange it all on a plate Another week they were set the task of making a chocolate mousse, two ingredients chocolate and cream, surprise ! surprise! some of the pupils ate the chocolate before they even got to the lesson. The lessons were a complete waste of time compared to the ones I had when I was at school, where we actually planned, prepared and cooked complete meals, learning how to balance the different elements of carbohydrates and proteins. Looking back it's where I learned the basics such as making a roux for a white sauce which has proved invaluable. Taught well it's a life skill. Taught badly it's a waste of time and money.

carefreeeee · 13/03/2018 19:02

They sell equivalents of dolmio in aldi - just get own brand jar of sauce.

Original poster

JustBeingJobless · 13/03/2018 19:07

Actually, thinking about it, I might just defrost some sauce that I’ve already made and decant it into a jar for him to take. I remember making cakes, bread, sauces etc from scratch in home economics. How things change!

OP posts:

nooka · 13/03/2018 19:16

My dd volunteers for an after school cooking club at a primary school and they make more interesting things with their group of seven year olds. When she did Foods at school we just had to pay a termly fee (and it wasn't very high), they ate everything they cooked during the lesson so I never got to taste it, but dd was already a pretty good cook so I'm sure it was nice. Definitely all from scratch, partly just due to economics.

Original poster

JustBeingJobless · 13/03/2018 19:34

I’d much rather pay an amount to the school for ingredients as it would work out cheaper for everyone that way.

OP posts:

BrownTurkey · 13/03/2018 19:42

You wait til you are furiously racing the other parent and his child to the risotto rice shelf in Waitrose because you saw them staring at the empty shelf in Tesco 15 minutes ago.

BrownTurkey · 13/03/2018 19:43

Although I am actually a little sad that school has cut food tech lessons this year to a single, not a double lesson, so they don’t really have time to make anything much now. My two both cook a bit, but the food tech lessons were helpful.

SneakyGremlins · 13/03/2018 19:49

I only did it a few years ago.

We did fruit salad, and that's all I remember..

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