Local authorities shouted the words ‘Chefs, Get Set, Go!’ when two parent and child teams from Nottingham City cooked up a delight in a Nottingham school kitchen. 

On Wednesday, 25^th April, the teams were helped by two local celebrity chefs as they battled it out to produce a great tasting chicken dish at the launch of a new website at www.mycookeryclub.co.uk.  

This exciting new website has been created to encourage parents to cook with their child, promote healthy eating, offer advice and cooking information and to promote the school meals service.  It is a joint initiative between the school catering departments of seven local authorities in England and Wales.  There are over 70 recipes on the website plus information about food in season, buying tips, safety and hygiene plus lots of nutritional information. 

Children can download activity sheets and help their parents cook the recipes by

completing the ‘child friendly activity’ on each recipe.  There is also a podcast that can be downloaded directly from the site.  Listeners will hear pupils from Bulwell St Mary’s School in Nottingham cooking Chicken Fajitas – a celebrity recipe which has been supplied by Andy Turner, Britain’s top sprint hurdler. 

‘Chefs, Get Set, Go!’ involved a parent and child teaming up with a chef to cook a meal from the ingredients provided.  The chefs didn't know what these were until a few minutes before the cook off.  Representatives from the other authorities involved judged the best meal by holding up cards with either a picture of fruit or vegetables.  The chefs were John Mallows, the new Head Chef at Dibleys Bistro and formerly from John Lewis in Nottingham and Mel Keeling.  He has just joined Nottingham City Council in April after working in the RAF.  Parent, chef and child worked in a team to cook a main course meal in just 30 minutes.    

This is the first competition of many as there is a monthly one on the website, where parents and children can send in their recipes and have a chance to win £200 of vouchers to spend on the High Street.

Arnold Fewell, Managing Director of AVF Marketing Ltd, which has created the website said: “National research has highlighted that 78% of parents want their child to learn to cook and 56% of children want to learn.  This website helps parents and children do this in a fun and interactive way, using the recipes on the site and the advice and information provided.  It also gives the local authority a fantastic opportunity to promote their school meals service as all the recipes are school lunch dishes.”

Liz Dobson, Head of Service, Nottingham City Neighbourhood Services said: “It is evident that many children do not have the opportunity to learn about cooking, food or nutrition either at home or in school.  We wanted a website that will encourage parents and children to cook together and give them all the tools to be able to do this.  www.mycookeryclub.co.uk does just that.  We provide healthy meals for our children at school and this new website can carry that through to the home environment too.  By parents, children, schools and us all working together we can help combat the growing concern of obesity in the UK.”

Date: 25/4/2007