Link to Louise’s talk at my book launch for Cream Horns and Vol au vents. On this link
Discover how we met at Hurlingham School and went on to write many books together.
Louise runs The Food Teachers Centre which supports over 10,000 food teachers around the country.
This photo is a group of my students. I am on the right wearing an all-brown outfit. High, suede leather boots, a brown mini skirt, roll neck jumper, belted at waist and a jaunty cap.
Read about those days in Cream Horns and Vol au vents.
Story on this link
When the wheat, oats and barley were ready for harvesting in Northamptonshire fields, I’d pick some for my classes to taste as part of their food lessons.
Read about these stories in my latest book Cream Horns…
‘Before I return to London, I drive into the countryside and climb over gates into the fields ready for harvesting, carrying a pair of scissors.
Large bundles of wheat, barley and oats make excellent visual aids for my lessons, displayed on a nature table in my classroom.
London children often have no idea how some of our food is grown, and may never have tasted the seeds from the ears of wheat.’
In the 1950s, Britain produced 1 million chickens a year – today it is over a billion. Intensive farming in the late 1960s reduced the price of chicken.
In 1972, chicken was too expensive for me to cook at school and there was nothing in the textbooks or exams.
Read about my chicken lesson here. From I taught them to cook
Today chicken is the most popular meat around the world.
Photo by William Moreland on Unsplash
How I tried to teach my students to wash up in my lessons.
Do you ever dilute Fairy Liquid?
Story from Cream Horns…
Delia’s How to cheat at cooking helped stop me making mincepies for the school Carol Service 1973
Read about it on this link
Read Louise’s post about her work with the Food Teachers Centre which supports food teachers in their work.
IMPORTANT STUFF!
Gov report suggests food lessons should be called Food and Nutrition. That’s 5 name changes since I started teaching!
Read Louise’s post on this link
Food teaching has so many titles around the world, it’s hard to know where it is taught. It’s called home economics, home and consumer studies, food and health, food & nutrition, consumer studies, and food technology as part of Design & technology.
ChatGPT says ‘It’s reasonable to estimate that at least 100 countries teach some form of home economics/domestic science (or equivalent) at some level.
In Sweden the subject is known as Home and Consumer Studies
Finland has a long history of home economics/household economics education
Austria offers Nutrition and Household
In Japan, the subject Home Economics appears in school curricula.
In India many education boards offer Home Science
In Indonesia, home economics is described as Family Training and Welfare
Canada does not always have a clearly labelled Home Economics subject
Other countries teach some food studies – Iceland, Denmark,
Singapore – Food & Consumer Education / Nutrition & Food Science
New Zealand – Home Economics
Mauritius – Home Economics
Ghana – Home Economics
Tanzania – Home Economics
Namibia – Home Economics
USA – Home Economics
Have you noticed Stork is not called margarine?
My story of teaching with Stork is on this link.
It was the start of the famous All in one method, which exam boards didn’t like – not skillful enough!
It’s one of the stories in my next book
Cream Horns and Vol au Vents – ready November 2025
Teaching Peas and making Pea risotto.
Remember the Bird’s Eye advert?
Sweet as the moment when the pods went pop.
Read the full story on this link
Jenny Ridgwell 