Yorkshire TV chef Joe Hurd goes back to school with new free online cookery lessons for kids

Just a few weeks before lockdown Joe Hurd’s first baby was born and he was busier than ever.

“We called her Liberty, as I love freedom and getting out and doing stuff, and then four weeks after she was born we were in lockdown, how ironic is that,” says Hull-born Hurd.

At the same time as having a newborn, and deciding to move the family in with his partner’s mother, all of his work dried up.

“I had lots of projects on the go, including work for a number of big corporate clients and they all just stopped overnight. Suddenly I had no income and a new baby and my partner Meri on maternity leave and having to consider applying for Universal Credit. It was a very worrying time,” says Hurd.

“We should have been showing Liberty to friends and family, but that just couldn’t happen. My mum and dad in Hull have only met her once, and she is their only grandchild. We try to Facetime regularly but it’s not the same.

“The first weekend after lockdown I was very despondent, but Meri is very pragmatic and there are a lot of people a lot worse off than us,” says Hurd, who presented the CITV show Munch Box and is a regular on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen.

“Being a freelance you do get bad years and it makes you realise that you have to make the best of everything.

“I’d had this idea for a 
kids cooking programme and Meri made me realise that now was the perfect time, but I had never really filmed myself before. So I spoke to a friend and quite quickly we came up with Scran School. Normally television takes months of discussion and debate but we just plunged in there and got on with it. I did find myself thinking ‘this isn’t going to work’, but I have been overwhelmed with the response.

Scran School was launched on Monday, March 30, at 2pm, and it sees Joe hosting a free education class for children via Instagram Live and YouTube.

The class runs at 2pm Monday to Friday and each week focuses on a different dish. The interactive cooking show is designed to help educate and develop basic cooking skills that result in deliciously simple meals.

Hurd says Scran School’s aim is to encourage its young viewers to explore their own cupboards at home whilst highlighting the many different things that can be done with simple basics and staple food items.

“As a new dad, I wanted to do my bit to help parents with home-schooling their children. There are many skills to be learnt in cooking, from maths to English and as a proud Yorkshireman, I promise this to be a fun and fuss free way to learn for children of all ages.”

Hurd says he is well aware of the shortage of some goods and so films the shows weekly to be in line with what is happening during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I still get deliveries from my supplier Deli Italia in Yorkshire and I have been taking these to local nursing homes, schools and NHS workers.”

He has also signed up to be an NHS volunteer, but intends to continue Scran School for as long as possible,

“It has turned out to be the show that I have always wanted to make but no one would let me,” he says.

“To me food should be inclusive and this is just that. I don’t have half of my kitchen appliances with me and we are living in a two up, two down cottage with an Ikea kitchen.

“I have a photo of my grandparents on their honeymoon. It is five years after the end of the Second World War. My grandad was Italian and my grandma was from Hull, they had very little and yet they look so happy. My grandad worked for British intelligence during the war as a sniper and was at the Nuremburg Trials. They’ve got no money but they are happy .

“Something like this makes you think about what is really important. Ok, so my work has dried up but I can always get a job on a farm. It makes you reassess.”

Hurd did a Masters in history at the University of Leeds and he says at times like this he finds solace in the past.

“Understanding the past and knowing that people get through things by drawing on their strengths has really helped me. A lot of people have had it worse,” he says.

“My family moved to Hull from Italy because of a shortage of food and you learn to go back to basics and make the simple things.

“We have got used to having what we want when we want it, like strawberries in February and eating meat all the time which has caused so many problems. I think what has happened will make us all just think a little bit more about what we eat. There will be some positives to come out of all this.

“Italian food is about simplicity and so it works well. I want to show people how to make the most of what they have in their store cupboard and also a little bit of history about the dish and then people get the chance to ask questions.

His first ‘lesson’ was a simple pasta dish, and this week is pizza.

“I know some people can’t get yeast and so I show how to make pizza dough with self-raising flour,” he explains.

“Then I think I may do risotto. You can actually make risotto using any rice.”

Hurd hopes that even after the lockdown has been lifted that there will be a place for something like Scran School.

Instagram - @JoeHurdCook

Twitter - @ScranSchool

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