Year 6 had the pleasure of welcoming Andrew for Aspdens, our school catering provider, this week. He spent the session talking to the children about cooking safety; origin of ingredients; the importance of understanding where our food comes from and how for it has traveled; and the benefits of a healthy diet.

As our Year 6 classes have been studying the Ancient Mayan Civilisation we decided to have a go at cooking some less traditional Mayan, but more delicious Mexican dishes. The children had to peel, dice, slice, grate and mix avocado, tomatoes, garlic, onion, fresh chilli and coriander to create both a spicy salsa and a cool guacamole before enjoying both with some home made tortilla chips Andrew prepared in the school kitchen before hand.

Some children were braver than others but lived to regret their choices when underestimating the strength of fresh chilli. Many of the flavours that Andrew introduced were unfamiliar to the children on their own, of course they had been exposed to them in other dishes but not many had eaten a coriander leaf on its own. It was not only interesting to see some off the children’s faces when tasting some of the ingredients but to hear the sensible conversations they had with each other about the different tastes the tongue can sense.

With more salsa and guacamole than tortilla chips our creations were sent to the school canteen for children to enjoy with their fajitas, which were on the menu for the day.