60,000 pupils will be taught how to cook pheasant by 2020 when Taste of Game teams up with secondary school teachers as part of a new GCSE project.
Interactive workshops at an event later this month will show teachers how to prepare and cook two simple pheasant recipes using skills set out in the new GCSE in food preparation and nutrition.
Nationwide workshops will follow, before teachers introduce pheasant cooking into their lessons.
Taste of Game hopes shoots will support the scheme by providing dressed birds to their local schools.
Taste of Game is working with The Food Teachers Centre, a UK-based self-help group which provides a platform to exchange best practice, advise and support less-experienced teachers, answer practical concerns and update members on curriculum changes.
The innovative project will launch on 24th June at the Food Teachers Centre’s ‘Get ready for GCSE’ event in Birmingham.
Annette Woolcock, Taste of Game development manager, said: “This is an exciting project which will put healthy, nutritious game meat directly in front of the next generation.
“Game meat is a great food, pure and simple. It is healthy, sustainable and highly nutritious. It is exciting and extremely positive that we can educate youngsters to the benefits of properly prepared game meat by focusing on the requirements of the national curriculum.
“We are hoping that the game industry will support us and that local shoots will donate dressed pheasants to their local schools.”
Louise Davies, founder of the Food Teachers Centre, said: “Secondary school food teachers are very excited by the launch of this programme as it will help them develop practical skills and knowledge about game meat through hands-on workshops and website resources.
“It has a perfect fit with the new GCSE course, where students demonstrate high level skills, such as preparing meat and where they are expected to understand how animals are reared and prepared. It also educates them about the contribution of seasonal, local and nutritious foods to modern and traditional British cuisine.
“In the past, lack of ingredients prevented students from cooking game, so this programme will hopefully mean that thousands more youngsters will get to cook and taste it.”
ENDS