Food safety for all
Last winter we told you about a number of groups we had started working with, and now is a great time to reflect on how things are going.
In addition to the cookery workshops we usually do, we’ve also been delivering food safety training and we’ve had some really positive results. Earlier this year we worked with students at Bradford Christian School, they joined us for some cookery sessions and food safety training. Over the course of a few weeks, we spent time with them showing them how to make a tasty and nutritious meal of chicken fajitas, and also teaching them how to stay safe in the kitchen looking at cleaning, correct storage of food, preventing cross contamination, personal hygiene in the kitchen and other subjects to introduce the importance of food safety. On completion of the course students were able to sit their CIEH (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health) food safety exam which most passed and we were able to join them again at school assembly to present their very well deserved certificates.
We’ve also been working on food safety with some of the young people at Bradford Inclusive Disability Service (BIDS). We’ve been attending their evening sessions where we have done some group cookery sessions, and worked with some members of the group to develop their knowledge on food safety. We had more great results with a number of people passing the exam and gaining a CIEH food safety qualification. We had a great time presenting the very well-deserved certificates.
If you’re interested in food safety, or other courses, get in touch on cooking@innchurches.co.uk.
At the moment we have three adult cooking courses running, so we’re being kept busy teaching people lots of new recipes, it’s great to teach new skills, but equally as important to get people to try new foods: this week we’ve cooked a wonderful spinach and lentil soup which was the first time using lentils for some members of the group.
We’re continuing to work with High Park School and West SILC School, and students are developing some great knowledge and cooking skills. We love to see the students working together to make healthy and tasty recipes.
Of course, as usual, we have been running our holiday classes for kids. We held some lovely Easter sessions which included pizza, some pasta dishes and a great session making Easter Lemon Biscuits: we used lots of cookie cutters and had lots of fun making lots of different shapes.
We’ve also had the opportunity to help a few people with some very important celebrations recently. We had the great pleasure of catering for a lovely wedding where we were asked to use as much surplus food as possible. It was a great challenge, especially since we couldn’t do too much planning in advance and only found out a few days before what food was available. We all got creative and managed to cater for over 150 guests and provided lots of dried flowers too.
Not long after this we held a birthday party for a very special little girl who we have worked with during our sessions at BIDS. everyone had a great time making lemon biscuits, the cookie cutters came back out and everyone made lots of different-shaped biscuits. We had lots of fun with party games and made chocolate fruit kebabs too.
If you’d like to find out whether we can cater your meeting, event or party, just get in touch on cooking@innchurches.co.uk.
It’s not long now until the summer holidays start and we’ve got lots of sessions planned. We’re working with lots of different groups over the summer to provide workshops and cookery classes for young people, and we’re planning lots of classes at our usual venue, Shaw House. We’re hoping the weather will be good to us this year as we’re hoping to get outdoors for some of our classes. We’ll be advertising our full summer programme in the next couple of weeks, with information on our cooking page, or at @iccooking on Facebook or Twitter (links at the foot of the page).
