Green-fingered pupils cook with MasterChef finalist

Green-fingered schoolchildren have been learning to cook with fruit, vegetables and herbs they have grown at school.

The pupils from Wicor Primary in Portchester, near Fareham, were taught to cook by MasterChef: The Professionals finalist, Luke Emmess.

The children hand-picked some of the allotment produce, which was then cooked by Luke out in the garden.

Last year, the school started to sell surplus produce to local restaurants, raising between £5,000 to £8,000 a year to put towards new tools, compost and glass in the greenhouse.

The school has been growing produce in its allotment for many years, which is helping expose children to new plants.

School horticulturalist Louise Moreton said: "It's so important to grow food locally because we've become very disconnected with food.

"We just see it in the supermarket. We don't actually see where it's growing, where it comes from, and then be able to harvest, taste it fresh from the ground."

The children picked herbs from the garden which Luke then used within his cooking.

Moreton added: "If people can see that children are growing their own food, being able to harvest it from a space nearby, and then prepare it and cook it and actually enjoy the fresh flavours, there's nothing better.

"The children are so enthused by it, and then it passes on to the adults, too."

The pupils added the food 'tastes really yummy' and that getting out in the allotment is important so they 'can look after nature'.

Gardening is not a core subject in the National Curriculum, but head teacher Mark Wildman said horticulture played an important part in the children's education.

The allotment project at Wicor is part of a much bigger picture to get children learning about the environment.

Wildman said: "They're learning to create a patch of vegetables that can be grown without artificial fertilisers, pesticides, those sorts of things.

"They're learning about the importance of insects and other invertebrates and making sure that they have lives within our allotment.

"And they're also learning that this whole setup is part of a much bigger picture, that's about an ecosystem, and that really a garden is just part of a much bigger ecosystem, and that also has a social responsibility to be looked after and to be cared for."

Luke Emmess is head chef of the Wykham Arms in Winchester and was a finalist on MasterChef: The Professionals earlier this year.

He started cooking when he was young and hopes experiences like this may plant a seed of inspiration and encourage some of the pupils to one day become a chef.

He said: "I think it's very important to teach children about cooking. You can see from some of their faces how passionate they are, even at a young age, about food because it is exciting.

"It's something different. Like, you take things for granted, you just eat them, but to know how they're made and how ingredients work and how cooking develops flavours and things, that's gonna go with them, and they're gonna progress with that."

On the menu, was a leek and potato soup, finished with lovage and a leek and potato cake, sausage ragu with pappardelle pasta and a strawberry sorbet with shortbread and wild strawberries.

Emmess said: "Cooking it here, literally on the plot where they're growing it, it's quite a nice thing to do.

"Even for me, that's something different. But for the kids to see it come to life in the environment that it's grown in, I think that's a pretty cool thing to do."

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