Students in Year 11 were offered the opportunity on Wednesday, 9 June, to take part in ‘The Survival Cooking Programme’ enrichment activity.  Kylie Nichols, teacher of Food Studies explained, “This was originally designed for Year 13 students to prepare them for adult life at university, or moving out of the family home, however I decided to use it for the Year 11 enrichment, as it teaches great skills and can help with being a savvy shopper.  Students arrived with no idea what the morning would include; “I thought we were going hunting for rabbits”, “I thought we would just chop up some vegetables” and “I thought we were just going to talk about it” were some comments made.”

The students were each given a whole chicken and were taught how to portion it; removing the wings, the legs and the breasts.  They then boiled the carcass to make stock for gravy, as they were going to use one leg to make a mini roast, with potatoes and vegetables.  For the next dish they chose a selection of spices to marinade the wings before making homemade mayonnaise and mixing it with carrot, cabbage and onion to create coleslaw.  

They then made a takeaway favourite of southern fried chicken and potato wedges with the second leg, which they portioned into a drumstick and a thigh.  Finally, the breasts were used for two international dishes; thin strips of chicken, onion and pepper, pan-fried with paprika to create a Mexican fajita filling, finished by wrapping it in a tortilla and also an Indian chicken curry with rice. 

Kylie added, “The students were fantastic; they worked very hard throughout the two and a half hour session and were clean and hygienic throughout.  I asked if they enjoyed the session and they all agreed, saying that it wasn’t at all what they had expected.”

The Year 11 students really enjoyed the whole programme and were delighted with their finished dishes, commenting, “I enjoyed it much more than I expected to, I learnt lots about chicken and different ways to cook it”, “It was difficult at first but really enjoyable and the food was very nice; nothing I didn’t enjoy” and “we cooked a lot more than I thought we would, I learnt how to portion a chicken leg, and I saw that one of my friends was a great chef!”.