Bettys cooks up a great idea to take the kitchen to children

"I was in the top stream and so we had to do Latin, while cookery was always seen as something to be done by the less academic students. It is always something which really annoyed me and seems to have stayed with me."

As a result of this early experience, the chairman of Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate has always been committed to working with schools to get more children cooking by allowing them free use of their renowned cookery school.

Now the doors of the cookery school are being opened to a worldwide audience with the launch of an innovative new educational website.

The new resource, www.cookingforschools.

co.uk, has been developed to encourage pupils in secondary education to learn more about food and nutrition, how to cook for themselves and to find out more about careers in the food and catering industry.

Bettys Cookery School in Harrogate works with Yorkshire schools by offering free bread-making classes to more than 330 pupils between the ages of eight to 16 each year.

"We wanted to expand this to a wider audience," explains Lesley, who is married to Jonathan Wild whose great uncle founded Bettys 100 years ago.

"But we realise that teachers do have limited time and also have to fit in with the limitations of the National Curriculum."

Lesley enlisted the help of Paul Walton, Professor of Chemistry at the University of York, who was keen to also make science more accessible.

The website was inspired by A Year of Family Recipes – a seasonal cookery book by Lesley, founder of Bettys Cookery School, and was developed with the help of experts in all areas of food education, including tutors at the cookery school, teachers and educational specialists Innovate

Educate.

Cooking for Schools includes video clips of Bettys staff talking about their jobs and career paths.

Aimed at teachers and students at Key Stage Three and Four, the resource supports food technology, science and enterprise, with a strong emphasis on information, advice and guidance.

Richard Jones, the cookery school's manager, said: "One of our core beliefs and greatest pleasures is to enthuse young people about good food and how to cook for themselves.

"The launch of Cooking for Schools brings all of Bettys' craft skills and expertise to schools and pupils too far away to come and learn with us here."