Food was the theme of the day, as two top chefs from The Authentic Food Company headed to Newall Green High School, for its ‘Let’s get cooking’ day.

Development chefs Kris Woods and Robert Gong took over the entire curriculum for a day to give the pupils an insight into the food service industry and to show them how new dishes are created from concept to plate.

Robert Gong demonstrated to the pupils how simple it is to cook a healthy Chicken Tikka Masala dish from scratch. After showing and explaining the raw ingredients, various spices and flavours, many of the children revealed that they had tried Chicken Tikka Masala before, but had never seen it prepared. The youngsters were keen to find out which countries the foods came from and learn about Indian regional cuisine as well as the British food industry.

An exotic fruit salad followed for desert to show the students fruits, which The Authentic Food Company uses in its dishes, such as mangoes and pineapples. Kris Woods added chocolate and ice cream to the fruit to show the children how varying flavours work well together to make a well rounded meal.

The lessons were not restricted to Food Technology however, as the students from years seven to nine learned how to cost up a product in Maths, design packaging in Art, write media articles in English, study food and culture in RE and translate recipes in German.

The day was a success and feedback was positive from both teachers and pupils. All agreed that the teaching of the foodservice industry fitted perfectly with all subjects and was a benefit to the children’s educational development. Head teacher, Mr Wilson said: “The chefs worked incredibly well with the students and the food they produced was eagerly sampled by staff and students. It was great to work with the chefs as the students got an insight into the food industry through every day subjects. The school catering department is now struggling to compete with the food served on the day.”

Sandra Maguire, Senior Manager at Newall Green High School comments: “The students were really keen to get involved in the days activities and having the chefs in was a great opportunity for the students to develop vocational skills, to ask questions and to gain an insight into the world of food. We all really enjoyed the day and I am delighted that Kris and Robert took the time out to come in and work with us.”

Senior Development Chef, Robert Gong said: “Food is often only covered in subjects like Food Technology, but we wanted to really bring the subject to life, and introduce it into the whole curriculum. Teaching children about the food industry and how it works is great preparation for the working world. The children enjoyed the day and got a better understanding of how the industry fits into all subjects.”