I know what you cooked last summer

We’ve had another great summer holiday with lots of kids’ cooking classes and workshops. This summer we were excited to add some craft classes for younger kids and found time to get out and about for some community sessions too. In total this summer we held 27 cookery and craft workshops which provided a total of 273 places for kids and their families to learn how to prepare and cook nutritious and great tasting meals together.

One of our community activities this summer included weekly sessions at Southmere Primary Academy where families were invited along to cook together to learn new cookery skills and gain some knowledge of healthy eating. We made lots of great recipes including a Keema Curry with Pitta Breads, Chicken Chow Mein, Veggie Chilli with Rice and Pancakes with Fruit. The families had a great time learning new skills together and it was great for parents to see their kids learning life skills and trying new foods.

As always, we love to hear feedback, this is what some of the parents had to say:

“Fantastic session, lots of information about healthy eating.”

“My daughter had never tried salmon, this was the first time and she has loved it, so proud and thank you to the teachers.”

In addition to these family workshops, we also went to Play Bradford and Bradford Youth Service to deliver sessions to young people of various ages. We had some great fun-filled and informative classes making omelettes, pancakes with fruit and lemony courgette pasta. It’s always wonderful to see young people gaining new skills and having the opportunity to try new foods and this was reflected in the feedback with a number of comments saying it was their first time tasting pineapple and seeing a mango being prepared.

As always, we also held our kids cooking session at our city centre Shaw House venue. We did a number of our old favourites, including quick salmon tikka with cucumber yoghurt, keema curry with pitta bread, tomato soup with simple soda bread, and of course our classes wouldn’t be complete without at least one pizza! This year we introduced some new masterclasses: a little longer than our usual classes teaching more advanced skills. We did a pasta workshop where we made
our own pasta dough and had fun making different shapes and sauces, a soda bread workshop where we tried different flavour breads and demonstrated some lovely focaccia bread, and finally, possibly one of our favourite sessions, an afternoon tea workshop. Everyone had a great time making a selection of sandwiches, scones and chocolate dipped fruit – yes it was messy, but we created some lovely displays which everyone enjoyed.

We’d like to thank everyone of you that attend our sessions, whether it was your first session trying something new or you’re one of our familiar faces who we love to welcome back each holiday. We love seeing your skills developing and it’s heartwarming to hear some of the feedback from kids and parents who get so much out of these sessions.

Of course, we also want to thank our wonderful volunteers who give up their time to help us with classes: Tess, Abi and Bernadine for your help with the cooking sessions and clearing away afterwards, and Sue who has delivered some very creative craft classes for younger kids, allowing them the chance to get messy with paints and glitter and take home their handmade creations.

Feedback from sessions is important to us, and we always ask, ‘what did you learn?’ and ‘what was the best bit?’:

“Watching my children eat food they would normally say ‘no’ to.”

“I have never tried salmon, but today when I tried it I loved it.”

“The bread was amazing! I didn’t know it was easy to make soda bread!”

“Watching my daughter get confident with cooking.”

“Covering the strawberries and banana in chocolate – yummy!”

“It was brilliant! Lots of chance for the children to be creative.”

“These classes have been lovely and the children have looked forward to coming back. Thank you.”