Primary school pupils across Christchurch have been visited by representatives of Christchurch Food Festival Education Trust and have tried their hand at cooking healthy recipes from the countries they’ve been studying.
All seven primary schools in the borough were included. Children at St Joseph’s School and Somerford School got a chance to cook some healthy local recipes, including fruity pork chops and chunky vegetable soup, while students from Burton School and Mudeford School learnt about food from the lakes and mountains and enjoyed making a Swiss cheese fondue and steamed trout fillets on a bed of ratatouille.
Pupils at St Marks in Highcliffe were studying ancient Greece for their project and lamb souvlakia proved to be a popular dish as was grilled halloumi cheese served on an aubergine and tomato salad.
Three different year groups at Christchurch Junior School learnt about food from Egypt, the Caribbean and Greece and tasted trout tagine with vegetables, jerk salmon or souvlakia and falafel.
The final sessions were held at the Priory School where Years 3 and 4 cooked Italian food including minestrone soup and pasta tortellini with goats cheese. Year 5 pupils cooked lakes and mountains recipes while Year 6 tried food from volcanic areas such as Naples and the Canary Islands.
On the final day the Mayor and Mayoress of Christchurch, Cllr Frederick Neale and Mrs Barbara Neale, attended the session on cooking from volcanic areas and were very impressed by what they saw.
The Mayor said: “The sessions that people from the Education Trust carry out are great ways for children to find out about healthy recipes. The fact that the pupils actually get the chance to cook the food themselves means that they’re sure to remember some of the techniques used in cookery.
“I’d like to thank Mary Reader and her team for all the work they put in to introduce Christchurch pupils to healthy food that they may not have come across before.”
