Celeb chef Neven Maguire wants obligatory school cooking lessons

Celebrity chef Neven Maguire has called for obligatory cooking lessons for all secondary school children to beat the obesity epidemic.

The TV star said it was tragic that some youngsters did not know what a carrot was and thought milk came from cartons.

He said the Government had to take action to battle the growing crisis where one in four children is overweight and a staggering one in ten is obese.

“I think every child should be taught to cook in school,” he said.

“That might be difficult in primary school but in secondary school, home economics should be compulsory.

“I was the first boy in my school to do home economics and I got a lot of slagging but that did not matter because I knew I loved to cook.

“If the Government is serious about tackling the problem — and it may not always be easy because not all schools have kitchens — I think as much as possible should be invested in this.

“It’s a win-win situation. Students who go to college need to cook on a budget, and I’m not talking about fancy food but real food, a stew, mince, soup, and vegetables.

“You can educate a kid that you can make a curry from scratch for €3. And you know what goes into it. It’s not full of nasties, it’s not full of salt or sugar.

“Really, we have to get our priorities right. It’s easy talking about it but home economics is a fantastic subject.

“You might not call it home economics but life skills. You can then teach the kids about health and nutrition and cooking. We have to go there.”

He was speaking at the launch of his new RTÉ series, Neven Maguire: Italian Food Trails, hosted by Dunnes Stores Simply Better brand, of which he is the ambassador, which begins next Thursday.

The 42-year-old father of two said: “Obesity is a huge problem. I know my local school in Blacklion, Co Cavan, has a very strict eating policy with no rubbish allowed.

“It has to be like that. Discipline is a good thing. We all need our treats and my twins are not saints, they love ice cream, sweets, Coke, but they are not eating it every day.

“They are eating it maybe once a week if they are lucky, and that’s important.

“In the morning they have simple porridge, no cereals, or maybe Weetabix the odd morning, and an egg in a cup and that’s it.

“And they will have a nice bowl of soup or maybe home-made sausage rolls when they come back from school.

“I’m a chef and what I cook in the restaurant, it is so different from what I cook at home. It’s basic.

“I do a ragu of beef, a bolognese with half beef and half pork, something I saw in Italy this year.”

The chef said his mother Vera started to teach him how to cook when he was eight and by 12, he could bake.

“Then I said I really wanted to be a chef, I loved cooking. My mother taught me a lot about fresh ingredients, roasting the beef, making stews, making wheaten bread, soda bread, cookies, all these kinds of things at home. That’s where it comes from, the home.

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