Harold Hill children try Chinese cooking

A top chef gave children advice on how to make the perfect chicken chow mein when he visited their school last week.

Mark Borrell, from the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, spent an afternoon at Broadford Primary in Faringdon Avenue, Harold Hill, teaching the pupils how to cook the oriental dish.

The Year 5 children had been learning about how they can help themselves and their families live healthier lives by eating well, exercising and snacking on nutritious food.

The workshop also gave them a chance to develop their culinary skills which they have built up during the school’s cookery workshops and family Learn to Cook days.

Mervyn Vumuka, 10, said: “I didn’t realise that you could make a dish like this so quickly and cheaply.

“My family would love this – we normally order chow mein from the take away and now I can make it myself.”

To begin with the children watched a demonstration from Mr Borrell so they knew what to do with the ingredients. Then then began peeling, chopping and slicing away.

Georgina Reynolds, the Year 5 and 6 phase leader, said: “We have seen a much greater interest in healthy eating over the last couple of years.

“Holding these cookery workshops, providing the growing beds [where children grow vegetables] and allowing pupils to cook with their families in school have all helped to make cooking much more appealing.

“The chow mein experience is always the most popular one.”