Children’s Cooking Skills Classes with Prept. Foundation
7 April, 10 April & 14 April | 10:30 – 11:30 & 13:00 – 14:00
Calling all young chefs! This spring join us for a fun-filled event where children get to learn cooking skills with the Prept. Foundation.
Each date offers something different, from mastering knife skills to making bread. These classes are designed to boost confidence in the kitchen, spark creativity and encourage your child to create nutritious homemade food.
Chef John will guide your child through the cooking skills class, suitable for children of primary school age, from beginners to more advanced young chefs. Through engaging, skill-building activities, we hope to make cooking an exciting adventure that brings families together. Find out more about the three classes below.
7 April at 10:30 – 11:30 & 13:00 – 14:00 | Taste & Sensory
10 April at 10:30 – 11:30 & 13:00 – 14:00 | Knife Skills
14 April at 10:30 – 11:30 & 13:00 – 14:00 | Bread Making
Our very own Chef Jean Delport from Restaurant Interlude works closely with the Prept. Foundation, collaborating and hosting unique dining experiences to raise funds in aid of food education in Sussex for the next generation, and to help the local hospitality industry.
£10 per child | 10% off for Leonardslee Members | Garden entry included in child’s ticket | All ticket sales donated to Prept. Foundation
Accompanying adults/carers get 50% off garden entry when pre-booked | Suitable for children of primary school age | All materials included | No oven cooking involved
Parents/carers must accompany children into the gardens (with membership or garden entry ticket) and are welcome to stay for the class
Information on the Cooking Skills Classes
Taste & Sensory | 7 April | 10:30 - 11:30 & 13:00 - 14:00
This session encourages children to familiarise themselves with food by introducing foods by seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting a baguette, before identifying the four tastes. Different coloured jellies are used for children to discover more tastes.
Provenance and healthy eating is the key message with a focus on the importance of a balanced diet and the risks of too much salt and sugar.
Knife Skills | 10 April | 10:30 - 11:30 & 13:00 - 14:00
This looks at identifying different fruits and vegetables, where they come from and how they are grown. Students then create a healthy meal using different varieties. Children are taught knife skills and how to use the “bridge and claw” techniques while again emphasising provenance and healthy eating. This also provides an opportunity to cover numeracy by cutting ingredients into specific shapes and sizes.
Bread Making| 14 April | 10:30 - 11:30 & 13:00 - 14:00
The third session is about where bread comes from, how wheat is grown, harvested and milled into flour. Children then make the bread. As there is usually not time nor the facilities within schools, children take the proved bread home to bake, which helps to ensure that the whole family is involved.
Prept. Foundation
Getting children engaged with food at an early age helps them make better food choices. By improving accessibility and changing a generation’s attitude to food we can begin to combat health inequalities. Prept. work with Adopt a School Trust, an established charity that brings chefs into schools to help children develop healthy eating habits, an enthusiasm and interest in food, and an insight into the hospitality industry, all from a cooking class.
Adopt a School Trust | Royal Academy of Culinary Arts
Founded in 1990, the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts’ Adopt a School Trust, is a national charity delivering holistic food education in schools. Currently their programme reaches over 17,000 children every year. Teaching crucial practical cookery skills and helping children to understand the link between food, health and the environment. Children learn about food provenance and growth, food preparation and hygiene, sustainable and healthy eating, nutrition and the importance of eating together. And for many, the Adopt a School sessions provide a first insight into the many varied career options offered by the hospitality industry.
Chef John
Chef John started his career at the Michelin Starred Gravetye Manor in West Sussex before progressing through the ranks at numerous Michelin Starred restaurants. After working in Toronto, chef John returned to the UK as Executive Chef for the opening of Ashdown Park Hotel in East Sussex.
After 14 years, he decided to travel and spent a year moving around the world before settling into the cruise industry. He had decided it was time to return home to East Grinstead when he received an email from The Royal Academy of Culinary Arts and Prept. looking for someone to cover the whole of Sussex for the Adopt A School children’s food education programme, it was just what he was looking for.