Celebrity chef visits school to promote healthy eating

10:49pm Friday 29th February 2008

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A CELEBRITY chef cooked up some healthy treats when school children invited him to their first cookery club.

Youngsters aged five, six and seven, were given the benefit of Andrew Nutter's experience when he followed Jamie Oliver's lead by doing his own school dinners special at St Anne's Primary School, Waterfoot, yesterday.

Children at the Ashworth Road school wrote to a number of chefs including Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal and Mr Nutter as part of their literacy support classes to boost writing skills.

Mr Nutter, who has a restaurant in Rochdale and appears on Ready Steady Cook as well as hosting Channel Five series "Utter Nutter", decided to visit the school after he got one of the letters.

He brought along local vegetables and exotic fruit for the children to identify, like star and dragon fruit.

The 12 children in the cookery class also got to see how cinder toffee was made.

Mr Nutter said: "I got this fabulous letter from one of the kids called Ben.

"It was inspirational and said the school was starting a cookery club and wanted to know if I would pop by and give them tips on healthy eating. I think it is important for children this age to know about healthy cooking.

"I want to support these things and there needs to be more of it. This is the age for kids to learn about food and how versatile it is."

Headteacher Stephen Crook said the club was all about teaching children the import-ance of eating healthily.

He said: "This was a fantastic way to launch our cookery club. He brought cooking equipment and fresh fruit for the children.

"This compliments our healthy school achievement having passed all the criteria.

"Being a healthy school is not just about food but also about how we treat each other socially and how physically fit we are."