Cooking Training and Consultancy
In addition to delivery within our School and Early Years Award Programmes and our Hospitals Support Packages, we offer a range of cooking skills training and consultation services.
If having the skills and confidence to lead cooking activities, or pass on practical cooking advice to others, is relevant to your working role, we are here to help.
We collaborate with individual schools, academy groups, local authorities, private companies and community organisations to deliver cooking skills training and support that helps improve health and wellbeing outcomes.
Community cooking programme development
Evidence shows that people are more likely to try new foods and make changes to their diets if they cook the dishes for themselves. Cooking together and sharing what is made is an effective tool in healthy eating models. We can help you plan and deliver successful cooking initiatives that include:
- Detailed programme plans
- Appropriate recipes and supporting resources
- Practical cooking skills development
- Application of healthy eating and food hygiene guidance
- Budget management and food waste reduction tips
Train the trainer
We have been teaching hands-on practical cooking skills to other professionals since Food For Life started in 2007. We’ll develop a training model designed especially for your team to cover the basics of teaching cooking confidently, or develop their existing skills at a more specialist level. To embed and ensure sustainability of the cooking activity, we can build a tailored offering involving both ‘train the trainer’ elements and direct work with service users.
Whatever you want to achieve through cooking, our experts are here to support you with a programme that delivers against your outcomes.
We have trained:
- Student teachers, practising teachers and teaching assistants to lead curriculum-cooking lessons.
- School cooks and catering teams to run cooking clubs and support in the classroom.
- Project leaders and volunteers to run community cook and eat activities.
- Adult education tutors to run ‘cooking on a budget’ programmes.
- Domiciliary carers to cook snacks and meals for older people with the aim of recognising and preventing malnutrition and dehydration in their clients.
- Community health teams to pass on cooking skills to service users.
- Community dietitians to deliver practical cooking support to clients.
- Social Housing Officers to engage with tenants through practical cooking activities.
Cooking Skills Advisory Service
In any project it is often the ‘getting started’ bit that can be daunting, or sometimes it is one little thing holding you back. Our expert cooking skills advisors can help you break down the barriers and implement successful cooking activities. We offer consultancy around:
- Cooking classroom design and equipment.
- Curriculum cooking planning and activities.
- Cooking club set up and programmes.
- Community Cook and Eat programme development
