I have often been dismayed at the decline of family cooking in the UK. This is despite cookery programmes on TV having a fantastic following and cookery books selling well. However, how many people eat a takeaway pizza or a ready meal when watching their favourite cookery show. Today we have a choice of fresh ingredients that was not available in my childhood so it is a shame that more people do not cook from scratch.

Cooking for yourself is an important lifeskill that is valued in many cultures - especially in the developing world. I think it was a big mistake that cookery was so widely dropped from schools in the 1980s. The food technology replacement courses might help people to prepare to work in a ready meals factory emphasizing the industrial elements of food preparation but do not impart a life skill.

 real-meals1

I was pleased that cookery will be compulsory in English and Welsh secondary schools from 2011. This is a great opportunity to get more people proficient in a key skill and will hopefully lead to healthier and more cost-effective eating. Obviously the effectiveness of this will depend on the content.

However I was pleasantly surprised today to see the Real Meals initiative which was announced today. There is a set of 32 recipes that were developed by the British Nutrition Foundation. The recipe collection is online and a quick look suggests that they have a reasonably straightforward set of tasty recipes. They are attractively laid out and have sensible instructions on ingredients, utensils and variation.