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Cooking and Food Preparation

Prepare and cook mostly savoury dishes using a range of techniques: washing, peeling, chopping, mixing, boiling, frying and baking; follow a recipe in order, and know the hygiene and safety rules for handling food

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What a learner can do afterwards

  • Describe the steps and techniques a recipe needs (e.g. dice the onion, simmer the sauce, drain the pasta)
  • Explain food hygiene and safety rules (e.g. washing hands, separate boards for raw meat, oven gloves)
  • Help cook a simple savoury dish and say which technique each stage used (e.g. frying vs boiling)

The lesson

Cooking a savoury dish turns raw ingredients into a meal. A recipe lists techniques in order: you might wash and peel first, then chop, then boil, fry, or bake. Doing the steps in the right order matters as much as doing each one well.

Wash vegChop onionFry onionAdd sauceSimmerServe
A recipe's steps happen in this order. Skip one and the dish won't turn out right.
Try it together

Zara cooks pasta with tomato sauce. She washes and chops an onion, then fries it in a pan until soft: that's frying. She adds tomatoes and lets the sauce simmer, cooking gently on low heat. She boils the pasta in a pot of water, then drains it in a colander when it's soft: that's boiling, then draining. Each stage uses its own technique.

Good to know

Always wash your hands before you touch food, and use a separate board for raw meat so its germs don't spread to other food. Ask an adult before using the oven, the hob, or a sharp knife.

Follow a recipe's steps in order, name the technique for each stage, and keep your hands and boards clean.

Watch it

Where it sits

Learn first

This opens up

Nothing builds on it yet.

Where this leads

Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.

Then practise

8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.

Cooking and Food Preparation · Design & Technology, ages 8 to 11 · LightMySky