Tom Aikens is calling for a radical shake-up in the way healthy eating is taught in schools — and says it could save the country millions.
The chef, who held two Michelin stars, believes a more structured approach to food-learning could ease the obesity and dietary issues challenging the NHS.
“It still does astound me today that the majority of our population in the UK can’t cook for themselves,” he said. “You can go to work in an office, tap away on a computer — but can we actually feed ourselves properly? No. I just find that absolutely barking mad.
“Having an education where you can cook and educate kids into healthy eating, or at least once they leave school they can cook themselves a proper meal, would be amazing.
"But a large proportion of kids who leave schools either haven’t had the opportunity or haven’t had the curriculum to give them the tools to be able to do that.”
He admits it would cost “millions and millions” to implement changes but argued: “If you look at the millions we are wasting on looking after people because they are not eating healthy foods and are now having problems — obesity, heart problems ...we could plough [that] into educating children at an early age.”
Aikens, 46, is leading the Schools To Market campaign, for the School Food Matters charity, to educate children about where their food comes from.
He said knowledge was improving, but added: “Everything seems to come ready-prepared or out of a packet. A lot of parents work long hours and won’t necessarily have time to cook.
“If you take a ready-meal out of the fridge it’s still going to take 15 minutes in the oven. You can easily cook some vegetables in that time.”
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The Department for Education said: “Children are taught about topics including a healthy diet and the preparation of healthy food, in design and technology and science.
"We have given schools the freedom to use a range of innovative methods to inspire their pupils, including practical work, and we know many are already doing so.”
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