Key Stage 2 design and technology · Cooking and nutrition

KS2 cooking savoury dishes: a guide for parents

In Key Stage 2, children are taught to prepare and cook a variety of mainly savoury dishes using a range of techniques, and to apply what they know about healthy eating as they do it. They learn to plan, follow a method, work safely and hygienically, and judge the result. It is practical learning that builds independence and confidence with food.

Cooking savoury dishes, explained

The wording of the curriculum is deliberately broad: pupils prepare and cook “a variety of predominantly savoury dishes” using “a range of cooking techniques”. Schools choose the dishes, so one class might make a vegetable soup, a pasta sauce or a bean chilli, while another bakes bread rolls, makes filled wraps or builds a pizza from scratch. How often classes cook also varies, and some schools link cooking to other topics, such as a country being studied. Ask your child’s teacher what has been cooked so far.

The techniques build up across the four years. Preparing ingredients comes first: washing, peeling, grating, slicing, chopping, measuring and weighing. Children then combine and shape: mixing, mashing, kneading dough, rolling and spreading. Finally comes applying heat: boiling, simmering, baking and grilling, and sometimes frying, with an adult managing the hob, the oven and the hot pans. Older pupils are expected to work more independently and to understand why a technique suits a food, such as simmering vegetables until soft or kneading dough to develop the stretch in it.

Safety and hygiene are taught as habits rather than rules. Children wash their hands, tie back long hair, wear an apron, keep surfaces clean and wash fruit and vegetables. They learn why raw meat and fish are kept apart from ready-to-eat foods, and why meat must be cooked all the way through. Knife skills are taught explicitly: the “claw” grip, with the fingertips curled back on the food being cut, and the “bridge” hold for rounder foods, where the hand forms an arch with the knife cutting underneath.

Cooking is also a planning and evaluating task in design and technology. Children write or follow a method, put steps in the right order, work out quantities, and think about timing, such as getting the vegetables on early because they take the longest. Afterwards they taste and judge: appearance, smell, taste and texture, and what they would change. This links directly to healthy eating, because they are asked to include food groups, such as extra vegetables or beans, and to think about the salt and fat they add.

The skills are meant to carry over into daily life. A child who can wash, chop soft ingredients and follow a method with a little help is well prepared for the more demanding cooking taught in Key Stage 3, and for being able to feed themselves as they grow up.

Words your child will hear

Method: The ordered steps for making a dish, written so that someone else could follow them.
Claw grip: Holding food with the fingertips curled inwards so they stay away from the knife blade.
Bridge hold: Holding a round food with the hand arched over it, with the knife cutting underneath the arch.
Simmer: To cook gently in liquid that is just bubbling at the edges, below a full boil.
Season: To add flavour with herbs, spices, pepper or a small amount of salt.
Cross-contamination: Germs passing from raw food, such as chicken, to other foods, hands or surfaces.
Hygiene: Keeping hands, equipment and surfaces clean so that food stays safe to eat.

What the National Curriculum says

In Key Stage 2, pupils should be taught to:

Prepare and cook a variety of predominantly savoury dishes using a range of cooking techniques
Understand and apply the principles of a healthy and varied diet

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: planning and cooking a vegetable soup

A class plans a vegetable soup for four people using an onion, two carrots, a potato, a tin of tomatoes and some vegetable stock. How should they plan and cook it, with an adult in charge of the hob?

Get ready and make it hygienic. Wash hands, tie back hair, put on aprons and clean the work surface. Wash the vegetables. Collect every ingredient and tool first, such as chopping board, knife, pan and wooden spoon.
Prepare the vegetables in a sensible order. Peel the onion, carrots and potato. Cut the onion, then the carrots and potato into small, even pieces using the claw grip, because even pieces cook at the same speed. Put the scraps in the compost or bin.
Cook with the adult in charge of the hob. Soften the onion gently in a little oil, add the carrots and potato, then the tomatoes and stock. Bring to a simmer and leave for about 20 minutes, until a piece of carrot is soft when pressed with a spoon.
Finish and season. Take the pan off the heat. The adult blends the hot soup, or the children mash it once it has cooled a little, until it is as smooth as the class likes. Taste a small, cooled spoonful on a clean spoon, then add pepper or a very small pinch of salt, and taste again with another clean spoon.
Evaluate. Judge the soup for taste, texture, colour and smell. Ask whether it could be healthier, for example by adding a handful of lentils for protein and fibre, and what to do differently next time.

A plan of safe preparation, even chopping, simmering until soft, tasting and seasoning, and a short evaluation. The soup contains several vegetables, and the evaluation links back to healthy eating.

Common mistakes and how to help

Rushing the preparation and cutting uneven pieces

Children are keen to reach the exciting part, the heat, and treat chopping as a chore. Big and small pieces then cook at different speeds, leaving some raw and some mushy.

What helps: Talk about why even pieces matter. Practise on something soft like a banana or cooked potato with a table knife and an adult beside them.

Thinking you can tell meat is cooked from its colour alone

A browned outside suggests the food is done, but the middle may still be undercooked.

What helps: Explain that meat such as chicken and mince must be cooked all the way through. An adult cuts into the thickest part to check it is steaming hot, there is no pink and the juices run clear, or uses a food thermometer.

Tasting the food with the same spoon again and again

It seems harmless, but it spreads germs from mouths into the dish.

What helps: Show how to use a clean spoon every time, or to spoon a little onto a small plate. It is a good routine that costs nothing.

Following the method without understanding why

Children copy steps in order but do not connect them, so they cut short the time bread dough needs to rise or the simmering time and wonder why it fails.

What helps: Ask “What is this step for?” as you cook. Understanding why a step is there helps them follow it and change recipes confidently later.

How to help at home

Give them a real job in the kitchen. Let your child wash vegetables, measure ingredients, grate cheese with you beside them (stopping before their fingers get close to the grater), tear lettuce or stir a sauce off the heat. Real, useful jobs build more skill than pretend ones.
Practise safe knife skills with supervision. Start with a table knife and soft foods such as banana, cooked potato or mushrooms, teaching the claw grip. Move to a proper knife only when you are standing beside them and they are ready.
Cook one family meal together each week. Pick something simple, like a pasta sauce or a wrap with fillings. Read the method aloud together, decide who does which step, and keep an adult in charge of the hob and oven.
Talk through the plan before you start. Ask, “What goes first? What takes longest? How will we keep raw chicken away from the salad?” Planning and thinking about safety are as much part of the learning as the cooking.
Taste and evaluate afterwards. Ask what worked and what they would change. Encourage descriptive words for taste and texture: crunchy, smooth, salty, mild, soft. It builds vocabulary and makes tasting an honest judgement.

Builds on

Key Stage 1: Healthy and varied diet
Key Stage 1: Where food comes from

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Nutrition and healthy eating
Key Stage 3: Cooking savoury dishes
Key Stage 3: Kitchen skills and techniques
Key Stage 3: Seasoning and adapting recipes
Key Stage 3: Source, season and ingredient properties