Teacher, is the broccoli ready yet?
Schools playing their own part in the fight against growing obesity
By Tiina Rajamäki
Four tables, and four groups of cooks, and four cooks in each group: carrots, bell peppers and broccoli were already sliced before recess.
The head cook - home economics teacher Hanna Fräntilä - shows the menu on the overhead projector. Chicken wok and rice, and for dessert, oven-cooked bananas with ice cream.
The seventh grade at their school in Viikki in the east of Helsinki wait impatiently to get to the main event. Before that, Antti Karjalainen checks up on a couple of important things:
"Do we put chili there? And can we put both ginger and cinnamon in the bananas?"
On the subject of Chinese cuisine, some are familiar with "deep-fry batter". However, the bananas this time are not deep fried, as the batter would have so much fat in it.
All of the seventh graders learn home economics, and those who are older can take it as an elective subject.
"We talk to the pupils about hidden fat, different types of fat, and people’s need for energy", Hanna Fräntilä says.
In her view, action is the best way to get a message through: in cooking, light ingredients and vegetables are used.
"That way, the pupils remember them", she says.
The wok of Pärisa Kamyab is boiling already. "I’m fast". "I wonder if this broccoli is ready yet", says someone in another group.
Everyone is a fast cook. Half an hour and the woks are on the table, and one group has the napkins folded on the table in the shape of bishops’ mitres. Suddenly the buzz dies down, and everyone sits at the tables to taste the final result.
"It was the best that we ever did in cooking class", says Viljami Lahtinen.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 10.2.2006
More on this subject:
 One in five schoolchildren in upper grades are overweight
TIINA RAJAMÄKI / Helsingin Sanomat
tiina.rajamaki@hs.fi
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| 13.2.2007 - THIS WEEK |
Teacher, is the broccoli ready yet?
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