Tory MP blames food bank use on people not knowing how to cook or budge

Callistemon21

MissAdventure

That is precisely the last kind of thing my boy cooked.
A huge amount of minced lean beef (I don't eat mince) with diced mushrooms in it (he doesnt eat mushrooms) on flat bread type things.
The mince would have made 5 or 6 decent portions of something.

I rarely saw anything my DS made at school, it was eaten before it got home.
He's an excellent cook now, better than me but probably not from anything he learnt at school. He worked in a restaurant kitchen on his gap year.

What is it about some GNers that makes them think they can cook better than others?
Because they can?
I acknowledge that there are far better cooks on here than me. I'm a chuck it in, measure by eye kind of cook. It's usually successful, at least by family standards.

Sorry, but I don't think they always "can". Being able to make cakes, bread and pastry doesn't make for a cook of healthy food. Understanding nutrition does.

I bought mine a student cookbook

I suppose there are people who are better or worse at all kinds of things.
The £1 a day menu, though...?
Not seen any evidence of someone being able to do it.

Whitewavemark2

I think that we have deviated a long way from the subject?.

The reason people can’t cook proper food is poverty.

Nothing more or less.

I agree with so many comments on this thread, but I think this one sums it up perfectly. Every crisis we have (Covid 19 for example) ends with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Please correct me if I am wrong about this.

It seems to me that we are encouraged by the rich and powerful to blame and misrepresent people in need, by calling them 'benefit fraudsters', 'illegal migrants', 'homeless addicted to drugs and alcohol', ' lazy', 'obese'; anything to make it seem that they are at fault.

The problem is that inequality increases year upon year; the gap between the richest and the poorest widens consistently; the people in power have demonstrably no idea of the situation of people using food banks, filling up tummies with the cheapest carbs and fats. The 'big reset' needs to tackle this, but I don't honestly think it ever will with the system as it is.

growstuff

And make being able to read them a priority.

Yes, I thought I said something similar but it must be another thread.

MissAdventure

That is precisely the last kind of thing my boy cooked.
A huge amount of minced lean beef (I don't eat mince) with diced mushrooms in it (he doesnt eat mushrooms) on flat bread type things.
The mince would have made 5 or 6 decent portions of something.

I rarely saw anything my DS made at school, it was eaten before it got home.
He's an excellent cook now, better than me but probably not from anything he learnt at school. He worked in a restaurant kitchen on his gap year.

What is it about some GNers that makes them think they can cook better than others?
Because they can?
I acknowledge that there are far better cooks on here than me. I'm a chuck it in, measure by eye kind of cook. It's usually successful, at least by family standards.

At school when we did cooking, we still read a recipe as we went.
We didn't cook how my mum did, just by "eye".

And make being able to read them a priority.

Dickens

Whitewavemark2

volver

Pastry? You were taught at school to make pastry?And baby food? And this was the most necessary course you did?

No sorry. French. Maths. English. Etc. Not "how to be a housewife."

I did those as well. I have been educated to post degree level But that course has stood me in good stead throughout my life.

Don’t denigrate those oh so necessary skills.

I don't think pastry-making is an essential, but all children regardless of sex or gender-orientation, should be taught how to feed themselves with simple, basic meals. It's the stuff of survival!

When they are pitchforked into the adult world, if they don't know how to look after themselves, they will waste time and money puzzling over what to buy and wondering what to do with whatever they've bought. If they understand how to knock up a simple Cottage Pie or Vegan Casserole - or if they're armed with the knowledge that a can of low-salt baked beans on wholemeal toast topped with grated cheese is quite acceptable as an alternative when they can't be a**ed to cook - will surely make them a healthier generation, and give them more time to concentrate on their studies?

It's such a basic element of everyone's life, a 'skill' that everyone needs... a rudimentary knowledge of food and its nutritional value is an essential. It's no good sitting down to study if your stomach is rumbling with hunger an hour after you've eaten yet another pot noodle...

Give them a link to a couple of comprehensive websites instead! BBC Food and Delia Online would be a good start.

That is precisely the last kind of thing my boy cooked.
A huge amount of minced lean beef (I don't eat mince) with diced mushrooms in it (he doesnt eat mushrooms) on flat bread type things.
The mince would have made 5 or 6 decent portions of something.

Callistemon21
How are parents who have to access food from the food bank supposed to buy all the ingredients for their child(ren) to take into school to make eg spaghetti bolognese for four.
I remember that situation back when I was doing domestic science in school. We were not well off and having to find the ingredients for me to take into school to do cookery in the same week that my sister was also having to take ingredients into school to do cookery was often a problem.
What isn’t helpful at the moment either, it’s all this virtue signalling about how people can cook a meal for 30p per person.

Shropshirelass

Perhaps he shouldn’t have said what he said, but he is right. I have said for years that schools should not have stopped domestic science lessons (or reduced to 6 week modules). When they do cook in schools they use packet mix and processed food. Many people are frightened of trying to cook and have no idea what some of the ingredients are. All of my children could cook at an early age and still do so now. Cooking skills are passed down the generations, this seems to have been lost for many people.

How patronising! What is it about some GNers that makes them think they can cook better than others?

I know many people who can cook well, but not because they learnt about it in school or their parents. The best way to influence people's cooking habits is to use social media, such as Tiktok.

Whitewavemark2

I think that we have deviated a long way from the subject?.

The reason people can’t cook proper food is poverty.

Nothing more or less.

?
How are parents who have to access food from the food bank supposed to buy all the ingredients for their child(ren) to take into school to make eg spaghetti bolognese for four?

Just how broad is the curriculum supposed to be?

Shropshirelass

Perhaps he shouldn’t have said what he said, but he is right. I have said for years that schools should not have stopped domestic science lessons (or reduced to 6 week modules). When they do cook in schools they use packet mix and processed food. Many people are frightened of trying to cook and have no idea what some of the ingredients are. All of my children could cook at an early age and still do so now. Cooking skills are passed down the generations, this seems to have been lost for many people.

Nope.
No packets or processed foods in my grandsons cookery recipes.
Not one.

If you can't afford to buy bread and can't turn on the kettle because you can't afford the electricity costs, it doesn't matter if you are cordon bleu trained. You need a food bank.

What isn’t true is that you can make a meal for 30p

Perhaps he shouldn’t have said what he said, but he is right. I have said for years that schools should not have stopped domestic science lessons (or reduced to 6 week modules). When they do cook in schools they use packet mix and processed food. Many people are frightened of trying to cook and have no idea what some of the ingredients are. All of my children could cook at an early age and still do so now. Cooking skills are passed down the generations, this seems to have been lost for many people.

Dickens

Callistemon21

I never had cookery lessons at school and seem to have managed over the years .....

I'm sure you're not alone in that.

Do you think it's a good argument against teaching basic cooking skills?

I think if you can read you can follow a recipe.

That to WWM2

That, we agree on. ✔️

Callistemon21

I never had cookery lessons at school and seem to have managed over the years .....

I'm sure you're not alone in that.

Do you think it's a good argument against teaching basic cooking skills?

I think that we have deviated a long way from the subject?.

The reason people can’t cook proper food is poverty.

Nothing more or less.

I was given the Delia book as an engagement present in the eighties. I've still got it, use it all the time.

bring Delia back

When I did cooking classes way back in the Stone Age sometime, I learned to make porridge, scrambled eggs and scones. There must have been other things, but I don't remember them. I also learnt how to clean a pan and what roughage was.

Not knowing how to make pate sucre and different kinds of cake, along with which fish was du jour, has not held me back in my life.