At what time of the year ?

For lunch The morning activity is dedicated to the preparation of the meal. The feast has to end before nap time (dishwashing included)

For the snack The afternoon activity is dedicated to the preparation of this festal snack. It will end with a service to the community.

During the camp but also for a one-night activity

How should I organise it ?

In small groups
This formula is the most common but you can also ask for a specific meal according to the difficulty of the recipe ...

With an adult
A distant presence will make sure that everything goes well and ensure a good security.

One dish
Each patrol can cook one dish with imposed ingredients following a recipe. They can therefore spend more time on a good cooking with a nice display and a good hygiene.
A full meal requires more time and planning. The boys should be more experienced to make sure everybody eats before 2:30 or 3:00 pm (and that doesn’t include dishwashing)
In all cases, everybody will eat TOGETHER

What are the educational goals

Learn how to read a recipe
Before you start cooking you should take enough time to read the recipe and make sure that :

• you have all the required ingredients
• you have all the cookware you will need
• you avoid unwanted situations (sometimes you have to cook two different dishes at a time)
• you have planned everything in advance
• you understand and learn the specific vocabulary such as «to simmer, to wet, to coat with breadcums, to brown, to sauté, a zest».

Learn how to use spices and common herbs
A dish will jump from common to extraordinary just with a pinch of spices (cinnamon for compote, nutmeg for white sauce or ashed potatoes, pepper...) or herbs (chives, parsley or mint for a salad, bay leaf and thyme for a bouquet garni, rosemary with tomatoes)

Try and make a few common sauces
With a simple white sauce (or bechamel) you can change from one taste to another.

• It will turn «red» with a tomato sauce, «Mornay» with grated cheese, «soubise» with onions and meat juice...
• It is the same for dressings. You can use lemon, onions, herbs, spices, creams etc ...
  Discover homemade compotes All gardens are full of fruits in summer time. Wait for fruit picking to make compotes that will taste way better than those from the supermarket. The preparation of some fruits migt be tidious but cooking is rather easy. (you may use the pressure cooker)

Take good hygiene habits while cooking

• Wash your hands before you start anything
• Use aprons or paraquas
• Do not put any food on the floor
• The counter (a tray or aluminium foil) is always clean.
• Wash vegetables and fruits
• Have some dish towels or oven gloves.
• Do the dishwahing as you go
• Do not leave any used dishes lying around, store them outside.
• Do the dishes with hot water and rinse

And many others...

What should the theme be?

You should always keep in mind your goals. NEVER tell the theme in advance! If the children discover it by themselves on the D day they will immediately start living a new adventure. The kids are always happy to live the present time. They can benefit from what you give them to sharpen their view of the world ; it can be dishes or ingredients given by the adults. Do not forget to give them more than one recipe to help them go beyond your expectancies.

A few examples

• Saint Francis gets together with his fellow monks : the dinner can be italian.
• Many children are having their birthday during the camp : make simple compotes, they will match well with crepes.
• A game will end with a big snack where you eat the cakes and the tiramisu or the charlotte you made in the morning.

In which order?

One group for starters, another group for meat, one for vegetables and a last for dessert.

• Each group can have the same recipe (for example a stew with vegetables). It should have a limited time to come and collect the ingredients from the food storage tent. Each group will then cook for a precise number of people if you don’t want to have too many leftovers.
• Each group can have the same recipe and the troop will decide who cooked best. Same advice as before as far as leftovers are concerned.
• The chiefs can take in charge the fire and the water for dishwashing to accelerate the process.
• Each group will present in turn their meal to everybody.
• Each group can offer a part of their dish to the other groups so that everybody gets a bite of all the cooking.

How can I evaluate it?

If a team wins the contest you need to prepare about three criteria and make sure all the children are well aware of them. e.g. :
-* The hands are properly washed and dishes are clean

• The fire is adequate
• Everybody participates in the team
• Is the team well organised
• What is the atmosphere during the cooking ?
• Dishwashing is carried out with hot water
• The recipe was respected
• Hygiene rules were reinforced

What are the prizes?

If a team wins the contest you might want to celebrate and offer a prize that will be useful for the whole unit.

• Spoons, a disher, a large skimming ladle.
• Oven gloves the color of your scarf
• Aprons or paraqua
• A book of recipes (that you can make on your own it will be even more precious!) that will evolve as the years go by.

How much will it cost?

The price that is commonly asked for a normal day is way enough to buy all the ingredients for this feast. There’s no need to use exotic foods to have a nice cooking contest.
Do not forget that learning how to peel a potatoe is most of the time more useful to a child than learning how to peel a litchi.