Recipes for good behaviour
The Adopt-a-School scheme, sponsored by Baxters, was set up by the Academy of Culinary Arts eight years ago. Its aim is to introduce schoolchildren to real food by getting them to taste and appreciate the joys of eating, as well as expanding children's knowledge and understanding of food and its origins. Ongoing relationships are developed between member chefs and individual schools, providing an opportunity to promote cooking as a profession to pupils. There are now about 80 chefs and 120 schools around the country involved in Adopt-a-School.
Convincing teenagers to jettison their local fast-food joint in favour of their own culinary efforts is a tall order. But Peter Vaughan is used to challenges.
Former chef saucier at Chewton Glen, New Milton, Hampshire, Vaughan now works as a private chef to Michael Green, chairman of Carlton Communications, and is a food writer and occasional TV chef. Every couple of months, though - as part of the Academy of Culinary Arts' Adopt-a-School scheme - he takes time out from his more glamorous pursuits to share his enthusiasm for food with the boys he affectionately calls "the terrors" at St Edward's School, near Romsey, Hampshire.
St Edward's is an independent, residential school for boys aged between 10 and 16-plus with learning difficulties associated with behavioural problems. Today, Vaughan has come to demonstrate the art of making beefburgers - organic ones, to be precise.
Vaughan, 26, has been interested in a natural diet since losing four stone as an overweight teenager. His research turned up some US studies which found that juvenile delinquents are 40% less likely to reoffend if they switch to an organic, nutritionally balanced diet.
He believes convenience foods, full of additives and deficient in vital nutrients, have a detrimental effect on young people's behaviour. "It would be wrong to suggest that moody, miserable teenagers with difficult behaviour could, in a short space of time, be turned into happy, helpful young people just through food, but it is a contributory factor," says Vaughan.
He believes the best way of re-educating teenagers about their diet is to use foods they are familiar with - hence the burgers and accompanying baps. But he is anxious that his sessions shouldn't just be about healthy eating. "The important thing is that the boys enjoy themselves, as well as producing something tasty," he says.
The boys joining Vaughan's session today are year 10 pupils Chris MacMillan and Greg Cassidy, and Peter Childerstone and Paul Riley from year 11. Vaughan explains that the ingredients they will be using are natural - with flavourings such as pepper, garlic, mustard, chilli and tomato purée - instead of the chemicals that might be used in a fast-food burger.
"The benefit of making your own burgers is that you know exactly what has gone into them," says Vaughan, whose relaxed manner, spiky hair and youthfulness make him a teacher to whom the boys can relate easily.
Making the baps, using a 50:50 mix of white and wholemeal flour, is the first job of the day. Vaughan is surprised when the youngsters all say they prefer to eat brown bread. The choice of wheatgerm and molasses flavourings in the bap is significant: a deficiency of vitamins B1 (found in molasses and wholemeal flour) and B3 (found in wheatgerm) can lead to depression, irritability and nervous exhaustion; while iron (found in molasses) is one of the most common vitamin deficiencies among teenagers, leading to chronic fatigue.
The boys are tentative as they begin to mix together the dry ingredients, but when they are kneading the dough they begin to get into the swing of things, knocking it around with some vigour. Riley is particularly keen on bread-making - having done some work experience in a bakery - and plans to become a baker himself. "This is like being on Can't Cook, Won't Cook," he says.
Vaughan's introduction to the school came via his mother, Judy Dain, the school's learning support manager, who arranged for him to do a cake-decorating demonstration at St Edward's five years ago. The immediate interest the boys showed encouraged her to set up regular after-school cooking activities. Now cookery is incorporated into the curriculum, with some of the senior boys following a vocational access course in catering, validated by the London Chamber of Commerce, and year 9 pupils studying one session of food technology a week.
While the baps are proving, the boys chop some organic onions for the burgers and put them on to fry before making a teriyaki dipping sauce. The sauce combines dark soy sauce, muscovado sugar, sherry and wasabi powder, and is simply put in a pan on the stove to simmer and thicken to a sticky consistency.
When it comes to making the burgers, Vaughan stresses the need for good hygiene practices when dealing with raw meat. Minced organic beef is combined with wholemeal breadcrumbs, a free-range egg, the caramelised onions and the flavourings.
The baps are put in the oven, and the burgers go on to fry. While the boys set to work on preparing their salads - any combination from a selection of celery, spring onions, carrots, tomatoes, bean sprouts, red pepper and fresh coriander, together with their own home-made salad dressing - they come to realise the difficulty of having to do more than one job at a time. While they chop away at the vegetables and whizz their dressing, they keep a constant check on the ovens, where their baps, burgers and sauce are cooking.
Finally, sitting down with their afternoon's work displayed in front of them, they all eagerly tuck in. Comments like, "If McDonald's served burgers this size, they'd go out of business," fly around the room.
The boys all agree the taste is a hit. "I'd give a McDonald's burger two out of 10 and mine 10 out of 10," says Cassidy. "And I know my stomach's going to feel full after this, unlike a fast-food burger and bun."
Head teacher Larry Bartel arrives in the kitchen just as the plates are being cleared away. He is looking forward to a few weeks' time when a group of pupils are planning to cook a meal for him and five guests.
Bartel is fully supportive of bringing in Vaughan to inspire the boys. "As well as providing them with knowledge of food and an insight into different dishes and cultures, learning to cook has obvious benefits for the boys as they move towards independence," he says.
Vaughan himself is satisfied with this latest session. He is also looking ahead to taking some of the boys on a trip around the kitchens of Chewton Glen later this year. "We did the trip last year and it proved enormously popular - there's going to be a clamour for places this time." n
