To think knowing about food and being able to cook are key life skills?

[Notcontent]

This is something I strongly believe in, but I think that notwithstanding various small-scale initiatives to teach young people and families about healthy cooking etc the lack of skills is getting worse not better.

I was listening to a Radio 4 programme the other day about child food poverty and they were talking to some young people - one of the teenage girls talked about the fact that until recently she couldn’t cook anything)no and I also had little idea of what a normal meal should be.

This seems such wide-spread problem. So many people think of food as being readymade, processed things that you unwrap and eat.

I think that there should be education about this at schools as obviously many people are not getting these skills at home. It’s so important - eating is what keeps are alive.

Well said @SchrodingersImmigrant

You’ve spoken a lot of sense on this thread @WorraLiberty and said what I reckon most of us are thinking...

Just a shame it’s like banging your head against a brick wall. Lights are on but nobody’s home

The only thing I would caveat here is it is hard to learn to cook well if you’ve never really been exposed to decent food, and have no idea what goes into it. There are people who would find it very challenging to go into a supermarket and find onions and garlic and courgettes- to identify them. To know which bits to eat and which to throw away. It would be hard to learn when every single part of every step is learning. Of course it can be done, but from a disadvantaged background it can be hard to do.

@timeisnotaline

The only thing I would caveat here is it is hard to learn to cook well if you’ve never really been exposed to decent food, and have no idea what goes into it. There are people who would find it very challenging to go into a supermarket and find onions and garlic and courgettes- to identify them. To know which bits to eat and which to throw away. It would be hard to learn when every single part of every step is learning. Of course it can be done, but from a disadvantaged background it can be hard to do.

I am sorry, but your are not serious, are you.

Hmm @SchrodingersImmigrant I am. I don’t mean no one from a disadvantaged background knows what food is and where it comes from, but it’s true that some don’t, they’ve almost never seen food being cooked. I didn’t break it all out in the interests of just writing a comment not an essay. Is that the bit you are questioning?

Lots of ppl seem to be incredibly fussy when it comes to food and refuse to eat vegetables and so on. I noticed this at uni; lived with a couple girls who ate nothing but chicken and chips. Also a lot of them didn't know how to cook, some couldn't even cook pasta or rice. And these were not disadvantaged kids. Their parents just hadn't taught them.

I wonder if the above was due to having "child's food" and "adults food". This seemed reasonably common when I was young and the problem was struggling to move on to adult food.

I'll always remember the residential at the end of primary school where loads of us flat out refused to eat the unfamiliar "adult food" despite being 10-11. It sounds so daft when I type it.

I get that kids are fussier but this trend of seeing their food as completely different needs to die out, I'm hoping to keep mine on at least simplified versions of the same stuff as the adults.

I think one reason that people don't know how to cook is that with the arrival of convenience food, they actually have a choice. When I was growing up in the fifties I remember adults talking about families who lived off fish and chips, but it was pretty rare. The vast majority of people cooked. My mother worked full time with far less access to labour-saving gadgets than today, but she still cooked.
I had cookery lessons at school, it was pretty useless but there were always cookery books and by the time I was a teenager in the sixties there were television programmes.
I think the books and Delia programmes were the most influential in the eighties and nineties. I worked as an advisory teacher and remember thinking that if I went into another bloody staff room where they were talking about Delia's chocolate bread and butter pudding I would scream.
Obviously there have always been people who enjoy cooking and people who don't. Just that before the microwave and convenience foods most people had to get on with it.

@timeisnotaline but you can just watch a YouTube video. You’ll see what the ingredients look like and you’ll see how to cut onions, what hits are inedible, what the food looks like when ready etc.

If you're genuinely not interested in cooking and food - fine. Lots of people think of food as fuel.

To everyone else, there's so much information out there. If I don't know what something looks like, I'll look it up.

What is okra?
How to dice onions
How to make joconde biscuit

If somebody said to me "I really want to make it but don't know how" I'd be pretty taken aback.

I learned to make stir fries from buying the frozen ones first then finding out what was in them and buying the fresh ingredients

I do that too! On Saturday, I replicated a very nice fettucine with chicken and parmesan ready meal that we'd bought in Waitrose. I read the ingredients on the back of the packet next time I was in there, bought the necessary cream and creme fraiche, and it was a doddle. And so much cheaper!

I did similar with sauces once I had a blender. Even found a good recipe for imitation Nandos sauce.

Reverse engineering! I love that 😍

Isn't it nice for you to be someone who doesn't take half an hour or so to find the ingredients and chop up all the vegetables needed for whatever you are cooking. Not everyone is really fast at doing all the prep before you even turn on the oven/hob

Well, there aren't any vegetables in a carbonara and in an omelette they're optional!

And you don't need to do ALL the prep before you start. In fact, it's a bit pointless, because if you do you're standing around waiting while the things that take longest are cooking before you can put the quicker things on.

I concede that working out the order of events takes a bit of logical thinking and some planning though, and that some people struggle with that. Once you've done it a couple of times though, it becomes a doddle.

@timeisnotaline

Hmm *@SchrodingersImmigrant* I am. I don’t mean no one from a disadvantaged background knows what food is and where it comes from, but it’s true that some don’t, they’ve almost never seen food being cooked. I didn’t break it all out in the interests of just writing a comment not an essay. Is that the bit you are questioning?

I am sorry but I simply don't believe that an adult who has a capacity to live by themselves and shop by themselves will not know what onion looks like. Just no. I would get it with certain veg and fruit. Never saw dragon fruit. Ok. But onion and garlic and these absolute basics? Nope. Just no. Not knowing how to cook it? Ok.

She has never cooked or even eaten pasta or fish or cheese or lamb or curry etc etc. Anything unfamiliar is intimidating to her

I think this might be why MIL always opts for ham, egg and chips when we take her out for lunch. It's a fear of being presented with something unfamiliar.

Actually, they're a bloody fussy family to feed - BIL doesn't eat any veg apart from potatoes and SIL1 won't eat anything with a creamy sauce or mayo, or with beans in. And DP doesn't like any fish that isn't white (but loves seafood - wtf?). MIL makes the world's worst cottage pie - apparently unseasoned and she doesn't put onions in. She also doesn't like pasta (slimy texture) or rice.

DNiece (daughter of veg-phobic BIL) was gobsmacked when she saw me whisking batter for Yorkshires and asked what I was making. She didn't know you could "make" them apparently. I then completely blew her mind by telling her that if I fried the batter instead of baking it, it would be a pancake.

She was 20 too, not a small child.

I must admit I do prefer frozen veg as I'm crap at meal planning and it means chances are you have the veg you need available when you get the urge to cook something

I am sorry but I simply don't believe that an adult who has a capacity to live by themselves and shop by themselves will not know what onion looks like

And even if they didn't they could google it! Plus the shelves in the veg section of supermarkets are helpfully labelled. And if you can't read, you could possibly find an old-school greengrocers and like, ask for the required number of onions.

They do exist. Absolutely they do. They don’t learn as children and then they don’t learn as adults as they follow the patterns they’ve learned and the things they know. So even attempting to cook might exclude courgette or bok choi, things that are unfamiliar. I couldn’t tell you what’s in the pet food aisle as I just don’t notice it, that’s what other people do with the leeks and herbs.

Well I will sound hash, but I hope they at least find condoms.

@SnuggyBuggy

I must admit I do prefer frozen veg as I'm crap at meal planning and it means chances are you have the veg you need available when you get the urge to cook something

Frozen veg is absolutely fine. You are still getting the nutrition. Most people have frozen veg in a freezer. Peas, the all universal mixed one, beans etc. It's a good way to get nutrients and prevent food waste.

In our house we aren't actively teaching DD how to cook but she is cooking with us and asks questions about what we're doing which we answer.

She's 6 and can make herself scrambled egg or porridge in the microwave (with us supervising) and regularly puts herself together a sandwich, fruit and veg for lunch.

I think it's important for everyone to be able to take care of themselves by the time they're ready to leave home or go off to uni so we try to involve DD in all aspects of housekeeping, like washing up, hoovering or putting a wash on.

We also talk about managing money at a basic level and paying bills. Things like explaining that she has £5 to spend and what that can buy or that she can save it and wait till she has another £5 to buy something bigger.

Hmm. I hope they find people compassionate enough to understand privilege and the gaps relative disadvantage create so easily.

@timeisnotaline

Hmm. I hope they find people compassionate enough to understand privilege and the gaps relative disadvantage create so easily.

It's not privilege to know what onion looks like. It's not like it's the great hidden secret. It's everywhere. Walls of Subway shops, adverts, TV shows, movies etc. It is not "I can't know" this is a great example of "I can't be arsed to check so I will just continue with my selective lack of knowledge."

I think that a lot is said about healthy food being expensive and blaming that for people not eating well and it's not true.

You can get 3 bananas for about 30p in a supermarket, an onion is usually around 20p, a handful of carrots for 50p then you get whole boxes or bags of wonky veg for a couple of pounds.

Frozen fruit is great too, we have a huge bag or strawberries and blueberries £2 from Tesco, this morning DD has had porridge with frozen fruit in and a slice of eggy bread made with whole grain bread. A really cheap and easy to make breakfast that's filling and tasty.

We also keep a smoothie bag in the freezer , we just chop up any fruit that's about to go bad and we won't eat and chuck it in the bag. When she fancies a smoothie we get a handful of the frozen fruit and blitz it with whatever fruit juice is in the fridge.