Cooking is an “essential skill” and should be a compulsory subject in schools, according to one of Ireland’s leading chefs.

Ballymaloe Cookery School founder Darina Allen said teaching children to cook could be essential to avoiding a national health crisis.

A recent study has shown Ireland has the highest spend on ultra-processed foods in the EU, accounting for 47% of our weekly shopping.

On The Hard Shoulder, Ms Allen said she’s long been on a campaign to get “practical cooking embedded in the school curriculum”.

“I’d love for children to be shown how to sow seeds and how to grow their own food to land that magic,” she said.

“I really feel that we’re failing in our duty of care to our young people by letting them out of our homes and out of our schools without giving them the basic skills to feed themselves properly.

“The STEM subjects, everyone concentrates on them; well why is cooking and these practical skills not looked at as a totally essential skill?

“It’s the thing that keeps us going, our energy, our vitality, our ability to do everything depends on the food we eat.”

 

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Home cooking health benefits

Ms Allen said home-cooked healthy food is directly linked to good health.

“I was brought up, the eldest of nine children, with a mother that loved to cook,” she said.

“She did lots of home cooking, the most important kind of food, and we got the strong message that if you didn’t put the effort into the food on the table, you’ll give it to the doctor or chemist.

“We were brought up knowing food should be our medicine and we all helped and learned.”

Children cooking in an Irish primary school. Image: George Sweeney / Alamy Stock Photo

Ms Allen said it could be essential to avoiding a national health crisis.

“If you look at what’s happening in America, there is a health crisis with so many young people struggling with their health,” she said.

“So much of that is connected to the food we eat.

“Compulsory cooking lessons already happen in Finland’s educational system where no student can leave school with the equivalent of a Leaving Cert without being able to prove they can cook a whole lot of dishes.

“We wouldn’t have to invent the wheel here and could follow an existing model like that.”

Ms Allen said children “love it” when they get a chance to cook their own food, and this should be encouraged.

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Main image: Three children cooking in a kitchen. Image: Denys Kovtun / Alamy Stock Photo