Craft Guild of Chefs launches nationwide 'family food' workshops

The Craft Guild of Chefs has announced plans to roll out a series of 'family food appreciation' workshops nationwide, following successful pilot days in Hertford.

The Craft Guild, in conjunction with Premier Foods and Zuidam, recently held the second of its events at Simon Belle School. Parents joined children for a hands-on cooking workshop to learn about the basics of cooking.

Mark Rigby, senior business development chef at Premier Foods and Matt Owens, executive pastry chef at Zuidam, were at the latest event to demonstrate cooking skills and answer questions.

As a result of the success of the Hertford workshops, the Craft Guild has announced plans to take the scheme onto a national scale in 2012.

Owens said that educating the whole family is what the workshops are all about. "Many of us have volunteered our time in the past to go into schools and teach children about food and cooking," he explained.

"The actual activities would go down a storm in the classrooms, but the messages of healthy eating would be lost in translation because the children would still be eating junk or fattening food at home."

Rigbby added: "In the home we don't think about planning our meals, or our diets, and in a good number of cases we only think about food when we feel hungry.

"This has a tendency to lead to unhealthy snacking. Do obese children have obese parents? The answer in the majority of cases is yes, a child has an 80% chance of becoming obese if both parents are."

Each school that takes part will have the opportunity of four classes a year, coinciding with seasonal produce. Where adequate facilities aren't available at the school, the Craft Guild will link-up with local businesses.

For further information of the family appreciation days visit www.craftguildofchefs.org

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By Janie Stamford

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