Were you taught cooking at school?

SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Curiously I went to an old fashioned girls school. But even though it was 3 years compulsory Latin, all 7 years compulsory French, (English language, English literature, and Maths were the other compulsory subjects) Home Economics was only compulsory for 2 years. Mind you so was sewing, including using a sewing machine (at age 11), reading patterns to make your own clothes and making them. However they also included woodwork, metal work, and a number of other skills such as wiring a plug (that was physics) which everyone of us had to do and be able to do safely.
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I do remember learning to make a garnet file, amidst the Greek tragedies. I wonder if they still study Moliere in French A level. And I was a dunce!
 
epicuric said:
Sadly, no. At a very old-fashioned, boys only school learning to cook was not deemed necessary. Really useful stuff, like conjugating Latin verbs was far more important than learning to feed ourselves. That task was best left to the strange, and rather scary tabard wearing ladies of the dining halls. My earliest introduction to cooking was in my grandmother's kitchen, a simple farmhouse kitchen supported by an extensive vegetable garden and orchard. Starting at a very early age, I progressed from 'runner' ( as in, "go and fetch such and such from the garden"), through 'pot washer', to 'potato peeler' and the heady heights of 'egg beater'. Happy days.
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Lol, you just reminded me of making pikelets with my nana at an early age?? 9 or 10?
Wonderful days spending the weekend with grandparents.

Russ
 
We had a semester of "Family Living", basically Home Ec for all. My cooking started in Scouts, but what really made me charge on was going to college. No matter how bad, I ate it. Trust me my cooking improved rapidly. So, I'm pretty much self taught.
 
morning glory said:
I wonder what happens now. I have a feeling its not even on most school curriculums in the UK.
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There aren't Home Economics classes anymore, at least as far as my wife (a high school teacher) knows. With budget cuts everywhere, it's inevitable.

And, as @pocofan noted, Home Ec was just not something a boy took when I was in school. If they had presented it the way @rascal described, it would have been better: take away the stigma, plus let you eat during class!
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
There aren't Home Economics classes anymore, at least as far as my wife (a high school teacher) knows. With budget cuts everywhere, it's inevitable
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It was still taught in the school i used to work in, but that wasn't a state school but in the private sector. There was even an Inter schools cookery competition similar to the Great British Bake Off if I remember correctly. It was a big thing with the pupils having to cook 3 or 4 courses. A lot of work went into it.
 
Herbie said:
I had 'home economics' classes from age 11-15 where we were taught cooking, nutrition and household budgeting.

I didnt learn much that my mum had not taught me esp. as most of the recipes taught were traditional British - Cornish pasties, shepherds pie, Victoria sponge, etc.


I branched out to other cuisines by learning from friends and family; and now cooking bites.
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Yes. Took a six-month course in culinary arts, hoping to get a job as a cook. Ended up working in the damn dishroom!! How humiliating & demeaning was that?!! :mad::headshake:
 
Shermie said:
Yes. Took a six-month course in culinary arts, hoping to get a job as a cook. Ended up working in the damn dishroom!! How humiliating & demeaning was that?!! :mad::headshake:
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Quite a lot of head cooks in some restaurants and diners started out that way, with no culinary background.
 
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