I taught my students how to make Angel Delight tarts for a Convenience Food lesson. The aim was to show how quickly you can make a dessert.
I got letters from parents –
‘You should be teaching them to cook not open packets!’
Read my story on this link.
And if you want to make the recipe it’s here. It does get students to eat more milk which was a target of the day.
Delia’s How to cheat at cooking helped stop me making mincepies for the school Carol Service 1973
Read about it on this link
Government report 5/11/25 says – We recommend renaming ‘Cooking and Nutrition’ as ‘Food and Nutrition’
In 1970s my subject changed names 5 times!
Story from I taught them to cook is on this link.
Curriculum and Assessment Review says that students should have a grounding in practical cooking skills. They should also understand food hygiene and sustainability.
The focus should be on cooking healthy, nutritious meals.
Download the report on this link – go to p70
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
The Drinka Pinta Milka day campaign was launched in 1958 to encourage every adult in Britain to drink a pint a day. The ads emphasized milk’s nutritional benefits – providing calcium and protein for growth, and strong bones and teeth. It was seen on TV, in magazines, and on billboards.
In 2025 in the UK we drink 170 ml a day of milk compared with 400 ml in 1974. Do you know why?
For my book Cream Horns and … I’ve written about my class trip to the National Dairy Council. Big posters lined the wall encouraging milk and cheese consumption. It’s on this link.
This is my story of a Chocolate Mousse lesson in school 1973.
We bought the ingredients for the class – eggs and cooking chocolate, BUT white eggs from the 1950s to 1960s were being replaced with brown eggs. And students thought brown eggs were healthier and best.
‘Class. We’re making chocolate mousse. Bring a plate and collect an egg and a piece of chocolate.
This should be easy but there’s a kerfuffle. Jimmy bangs his fist on my table.
‘Miss, they’ve taken all them brown eggs and I’m not using them white ones. Me mum only buys brown eggs now. They’re healthier and fresher.’
The remaining queue mutters agreement.
‘Class, come and sit round my table. Jimmy – all eggs are the same. You don’t eat the shell.’
‘Miss, brown eggs are natural, I want one of them.’
‘Look, Jimmy we’ll sort something out. We need to know how fresh they are. There’s no information on the box so you must each come up and do the freshness test.’
There’s a large jug of salted water on my table.
‘Put your egg gently in the water. If it sinks it’s fresh, if it floats it’s too old and we’ll throw it away.’
One by one the eggs get tested, dark brown, light brown, the cream and white shelled ones. One by one they sink.
‘See they’re all fresh and the inside’s the same. Trust me Jimmy this time. ’
Back in their places, I see Jill swap her brown egg with Jimmy’s white one. That’s so kind.
‘Class. Let your chocolate melt in a small bowl over a saucepan of water. Then the tricky bit. Separate the egg white and yolk into two bowls. Cool the chocolate, stir in the yolk, then whisk the egg white until it’s stiff.’
‘Fold the egg white into the chocolate a spoonful at a time. Don’t lose the air. Spoon into a glass dish and chill.’
It all sounds so simple. We watch as fluffy and runny dishes of chocolate mousse get stacked in the fridge. Or on the windowsill when we run out of room. Soon they set and we’ll plop on a glacé cherry and an angelica diamond.
Cynthia hands round teaspoons and they tuck in.
‘Hey class? Why don’t eggs tell jokes?’
I wait a few seconds.
‘Because they’d crack each other up.’
They laugh and for now it doesn’t matter if eggshells are white or brown.
Grace Dent in her best selling memoir Hungry says home economics was the one lesson where she could shine.
Nigel Slater was the only boy in his domestic science class but it took a long time for Miss Adams to teach him to cook.
So do other famous food writers value their cooking lessons at school? The Guild has over 550 members who are authors, broadcasters, columnists and journalists and they are passionate and knowledgeable about food.
I asked if they learnt to cook at school and if not why not.
65% of respondents said Yes and 35% said No.
Many were not allowed to but why? The message was clear. Cooking was not considered an academic subject and clever students, like some Guild members, had to study Latin or science instead. They were actively discouraged from learning to cook.
In high schools and grammar schools only the less academic were allowed to learn home economics. Several begged to take the subject but had to wait until they left school to study for themselves.
A level Domestic Science was not accepted as a qualification for university and others, like me, had to take more exams to make up for this. Clearly, for Guild members, learning about food is their passion and they have a hugely diverse range of job opportunities open to them.
Here are replies from members who loved their lessons.
Liz Trigg says ‘I absolutely loved it and had a great inspiring teacher Mrs Susan Hopps. I then went on to study a Bsc in Home Economics at Cardiff University’.
Liz has a successful food media career as a food editor in magazines and writing cookbooks.
Lorna Rhodes replied
‘I loved domestic science at school and did the new course at Salford Tech for Home economics for higher education – led onto a job with Cadbury’s and then freelancing writing and food styling.’
Lorna’s website says ‘Food has been the story of my life!! I have had a successful career as a cookery writer and food stylist for over 30 years having trained as a home economist.’
Charlotte Pike is an award winning cookery writer, teacher and chef.
‘I did GCSE Food Technology in 2001. I was told off for taking my Mum’s copy of Delia’s Complete Cookery Course in by my teacher! Food Technology was dull.’
Lynsey Hollywood is the manager of the Food & Drink Business Development Centre and Course Director for the MSc Food Design and Innovation at Ulster University Business School.
‘I look back on my HE classes with really fond memories and am genuinely so appreciative of the topics I was taught relating to sustainability, health, budgeting and nutrition as well as the skills I gained in cooking and research.’
Jennifer John runs Ceres PR, a specialist food and wellbeing PR and marketing agency
‘I did O level & A level HE then the National Diploma was a brilliant education all round – in so many subjects!’
Jane Milton writes about the food industry and often appears as an expert on television programmes representing the industry.
‘I did O’ grade and Higher Home Ec. In my higher studies chemistry and Home Ec were time tabled against each other as ‘if you are clever enough to do chemistry, you would not do Home Ec.’ The School year book says – Course of Higher Education as they could not bring themselves to say I had gone on to do a degree in HE! ‘
Sam Bilton is an established Food Historian, writer and cook.
‘I did Home Economics as an O level in the 80s. I had a very enthusiastic home economics teacher so I enjoyed it. No one suggested I do Home Economics as an A level. I wish they had as I’m sure I’d have got better results!’
Clare Gordon Smith is a food writer, stylist and editor.
‘I did Home Economics at school, but had to change school to get there as the previous school didn’t think it much of a subject!’
What are the views of food writers who did not study cookery at school?
Angela Clutton writes award winning cookery books and runs food events for Borough Market and the British Library and regularly appears on TV.
‘At my school you did either Latin or Home Ec – and this was a decision made by the teachers, not the pupils. The ‘clever’ girls did Latin… Ridiculous and makes me sad even to write it here.’
Liz Wright, editor of the Smallholder Magazine, replied
‘I’d like to have done more but I was academic so they wouldn’t let me – didn’t do me a lot of good, left school at 15 because I hated it.’
‘I went to a Direct Grant Girls’ School in the sixties. No Domestic Science, no sewing. The headmistress apparently didn’t approve.’ Kay has been a book editor for many years and runs a travel gourmet blog.
Not all are glowing about their cookery teachers. Some replies made me chuckle.
Steff Hafferty is a no dig gardener, garden and food writer, teacher, consultant.
‘It was dreadful, taught by a psycho maths teacher and a psycho nun. I learned nothing about making good food’
Sally Butcher says she’s a crazy cornershop keeper. Restaurateur. Masquerades as a chef.
‘My home economics teachers were appalling. I couldn’t wait to drop both classes.Kay Gale ‘I went to a direct grant girls’ school in the sixties. No domestic science, no sewing. The headmistress apparently didn’t approve.’
My conclusions?
Since I started teaching in the 1970s, home economics, domestic science, cookery or whatever else you want to call it, has been challenged. The Guild members describe the enjoyment many found in cooking at school, yet others were stopped from taking the subject and told they were too academic and had to do other things. Learning about food deserves more respect. Well done to those Guild members who found a way in later life to get qualified and earn their living working with food.
In 2021 there is a shortage of people needed in the hospitality and catering industry, our weekend papers are packed with food news and recipes, and the public demands good quality food in supermarkets and restaurants. But our food teachers still struggle with lack of technician support for their busy classrooms and need help funding ingredients so that all students in their classes can cook. Somehow we need to wave the Food flag and hope that schools of the future give students a chance to learn about this amazing subject that has been such an important part of my life for the last fifty years!
You can read my story teaching cooking in 1970s east London in I taught them to cook.
Jenny Ridgwell 