Online cookery classes for kids that will make them love preparing food

Can online cookery courses really work? Yes, says Caroline Hennessy after an onscreen masterclass with Darina Allen

JP McMahon Kids Virtual Cookery Classes with JP McMahon, Aniar (Photography by Anita Murphy 2021)

HALFWAY through the morning, as tomato fondue bubbled on the cooker, chocolate egg nests set on the worktop and 11-year-old Hannah shaped bunny pancakes on a hot frying pan, it hit me: online cooking classes with kids really do work. Until then, I have to admit that I didn’t think much of virtual cooking classes. How much could smallies really learn by just watching a screen? It took a class with Darina Allen to convince me.

Last Easter holidays, out of pure desperation, I signed Hannah up for a 90-minute Ballymaloe Cookery School cookalong, hoping that it would entertain her for a morning while I worked.