Parents and children can get extra help in the kitchen thanks to a new interactive cookery website.  North Yorkshire County Council is one of the first council’s in the country to launch My Cookery Club, which encourages parents and children to cook together. 

www.mycookeryclub.co.uk/northyorks will launch on Wednesday, 25^th April at an event in Nottingham called Chefs, Get Set, Cook! At the launch representatives from North Yorkshire County Caterers will help judge a cooking competition between two teams consisting of a child, parent and chef.  The challenge is to cook a main meal and/or sweet with the ingredients provided.  The ingredients will be kept a secret until the chefs are ready to start.

The aim of My Cookery Club is to help parents cook with their child, promote healthy eating, offer advice and cooking information, share ideas and to promote the school meal service.  It is a joint initiative between the school catering departments of seven local authorities in England and Wales.  There are over 70 school lunch 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 children cooking Chicken Fajitas with the help of school cooks and teachers.  The celebrity recipe has been supplied by Andy Turner, Britain’s top sprint hurdler. 

Parents and children can enter monthly competitions to win £200 of vouchers to spend in the High Street.  Monthly winners will then be entered into the annual award to find My Cookery Club Recipe of the Year. 

Nick Postma, Deputy General Manager, North Yorkshire County Caterers said: “National research has highlighted that 69% of children want to learn to cook but many 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/northyorks does just that.  We provide healthy meals for our children at school but the recipes and information can be used in the home environment too.  All the recipes are dishes that are cooked at lunchtime in schools across the country and parents will be able to see for themselves the fantastic food that is on offer. By parents, children, schools and us all working together we can help combat the growing concern of obesity in the UK.”