The learning potential for children preparing food as well as eating it is explored by Judith Napier

Cooking for children should try to be more than just the safe option of fairycake with squirty icing. At Cowgate Under-Fives Centre in Edinburgh, centre head Lynn Mcnair says, 'Last week, we cooked a trout on the fire in the garden. The trout was complete with eyes and tail, and the garden had an "interesting" smell. The children loved it!'

Cowgate (see box) is just one of an increasing number of nurseries that place cooking at the heart of the curriculum. Those that take it seriously commit serious resources to it, because of the lessons it teaches over the range of the early years curriculum.

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