Laughing, confident and beaming with pride, a group of home-schooled children brought an infectious energy into the kitchen at Edinburgh Food Social. These young learners are educated outside the mainstream system and don’t often experience traditional classroom settings or activities – but that certainly didn’t hold them back. Over a series of fortnightly cooking sessions led by our chef-activists, they found a different kind of classroom in the Edinburgh Food Social kitchen: one filled with flavour, creativity and camaraderie.
Responding to Community Needs
We are always looking for new ways to spread our ethos and share our passion for cooking, especially with groups that may not have easy access to food education. We spend a lot of time with children at the local high school, but recently we’ve been trying to think outside the box – who are we missing? So, when a group of parents from the home-schooling community approached us after one of our community meals and asked, ‘could you run something just for us?’ – we jumped at the chance to interact with a new set of budding chefs.
As one parent explained,
“As home educating parents, we facilitate our children’s learning, not only by providing resources, but by finding learning opportunities out in the world, especially surrounding their interests!”
This partnership felt like the perfect fit.
Connecting Food with Wellbeing
From the first session to the last, the children and their families left with full bellies, growing confidence, and hopefully, a new appreciation for the power of food. At Edinburgh Food Social, we believe that building a healthy relationship with good, local, and seasonal food from an early age lays the foundation for a lifetime of wellbeing. It was fascinating to open up the conversation with these home-schooled children, where we talked about:
- The impact of healthy food on physical health
- The benefits of cooking and eating together for mental wellbeing
- How food choices affect the planet, including our zero-waste policy and use of donated ingredients
Parents told us they appreciated this approach:
“The children learned practical skills, as well as the focus on using seasonal produce and sustainability.”
Home-made ricotta.
Hands-On Learning in the Kitchen
Food education and home economics aren’t necessarily always a big part of the home-school curriculum. Learning in this community tends to be fluid, self-directed and creative – embracing the skills and interests of the individual – so we designed the sessions to match. One of the ways in which we did this was to offer plenty of choice; we could be teaching a specific technique or food item however the children could experiment with flavours and ingredients. Baking tasty but basic loaves of soda bread was enhanced by allowing the children to choose their own flavours; one particularly delicious combination was apple and thyme. Our chefs were learning too! These teaching days were low-pressure, hands-on classes that embraced individuality and curiosity.
Each session welcomed new families, while some returned week after week. The aim was simple: build confidence, teach essential cooking skills, and spark a lifelong love of seasonal, local food. And it worked.
Getting Messy
From the very first class, the energy was electric. Kids arrived with their families and took their places at our pristine stainless steel benches. Within minutes, those benches were transformed—splashed with the vivid green of wild garlic and the golden yellow of egg yolks.
We kicked things off with a showstopper that we knew the children would love to make and love to eat: fresh pasta with wild garlic, parmesan and toasted pumpkin seed pesto. The children took to kneading dough with dogged dedication, turning simple ingredients into a family favourite pasta. As it rested, we taught them about blending pesto – how to balance flavour, toast seeds, and avoid turning your sauce brown. And then the magic moment: rolling out long, golden pasta sheets and slicing them into ribbons before adding them to massive pots of boiling water and watching them float to the surface. Tossed with the vibrant wild garlic pesto, the fresh pasta was a hit; every bowl enthusiastically devoured by the budding chefs and their families.
Don’t believe us, try it yourself by following the recipe here (just swap the foraged leeks for wild garlic!)
A home-schooler showing off her home-made dumplings.
Building Skills and Confidence
Next, we moved on to making fresh ricotta from scratch. The children were amazed at how simple it was to make cheese themselves. Something they’d only ever seen as a mass-produced supermarket product was suddenly demystified and now they could make a delicious and healthy version at home.
That first session set the tone. Every class was a lively, shared experience; kids and parents cooking side-by-side, learning together, encouraging one another. It wasn’t just about the food. It was about togetherness. In later sessions, we upped the technical challenge. From home-made pastry for quiche and tart shells, to delicate gyoza dumplings filled, folded, and steamed to perfection: these weren’t just simplified kids’ recipes. They were real dishes, requiring real care and attention.
Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead
As the weather warmed up, so did the food. The final sessions leaned into sunny-day favourites: picnic-ready quiches, crunchy veg salads, fresh dips and roasted seasonal sides. At one final session – the biggest group yet – we all ate together outside, swapping stories from previous weeks. There were a few tongue-in-cheek jokes from the parents about ‘kidnapping the chefs’, but more than anything, we heard warm, genuine thanks: ‘You’ve made such a positive impression on them.’. or ‘We’ve loved every session. I can’t believe how much we’ve both learned.’.
We’re so proud of what this group accomplished, and we can’t wait to welcome more families into our kitchen.
If you would like to help Edinburgh Food Social continue to help broaden people’s culinary horizons, please consider donating to our organisation. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Bluesky to keep up to date with our programs, classes and news
