Herbs and spices are used in the culinary world to add colour, variety and unique flavours to food. Students need to know that all herbs and spices originate from plants. This research task gets students thinking about what part of the plant each herb or spice comes from. They discover the journey of vanilla from paddock to plate and will create a ‘how-to’ brochure for growing, harvesting and preparing their chosen herb or spice for use in the kitchen.

Wanting to make sure your students fully understand the recipe and know how to read it properly? This Reading A Recipe worksheet is perfect as a revision exercise or as a starter activity leading into their first recipe demonstration or practical lesson. Students are provided with an ‘easy brownie’ recipe that they use to answer questions on the components of a recipe, equipment requirements, recipe abbreviations, vocabulary and comprehension. To include a more hands-on approach, students or the teacher can be cooking the ‘easy brownies’ to provide visual assistance for the worksheet responses. The brownies make a tasty reward for those that participate and complete the worksheet!

Showcasing seven essential precision cuts used in the culinary world, this poster is a must-have for every aspiring chef and food tech student. This eye-catching colour poster can be printed A3 or A4, and features 7 visually engaging examples of precision cuts: Jardiniere Julienne Brunoise Macedoine Chiffonade Paysanne Mirepoix It includes a handy written description which details the appearance and dimensions each cut should have. Making it an invaluable visual aid that students can easily refer to while studying or engaging in hands-on practical kitchen experiences.

This textiles resource helps students understand how math concepts are related to real life. Students need to read through the information on circular skirts, sketch the pattern pieces and calculate the radius for task 1 & 2. Task 3 requires students to calculate bolts of fabric and Task 4 brings in their textiles designing skills. This worksheet is perfect for numeracy lessons, end of term lessons, as filler activities, no device/laptop lessons or for a casual/relief teacher lesson. Answer key is included.

Have you seen an uptake of students consuming energy drinks as their main form of everyday beverage? The energy drink market has seen unprecedented growth over the last 10 years and their popularity is continuing to grow, especially in our youth and adolescents. While there may be some positives to consuming the occasional energy drink, there are many short and long term health effects including addiction, anxiety, dehydration, fertility and heart issues. This poster provides an easy to read outline of some of the most major impacts energy drinks have on the human body. It includes the definition of an energy drink (in case your students like to argue why their energy drink isn’t an energy drink or isn’t bad for them!) as well as a QR code students can scan to view a cool, short, free YouTube video on ‘What if you only drank energy drinks?’ by the team from AsapScience whose aim is to make science make sense. The inspiration behind the creation of this poster came when one of my 15 year old students had a full-on meltdown and screamed it was the only thing she has to drink today and I was stopping her from hydrating (conveniently forgetting the cool filtered bubblers outside and the fact she’d just come in from break) because I asked her to tip her (just opened) large can of V down the sink because energy drinks are banned at our school (which she already knew!). For our students to live long and happy lives, we need to help them understand the importance of looking after their bodies (including what they put into it), and minimising their intake of energy drinks is one aspect we can help educate them on.

Food is one of the key aspects to understanding culture. It helps us identify where we are from and why and how we eat the foods we do. Today there are so many multicultural societies and foods that we have access to that have their origins in historical and traditional cultures. This can be contributed to cuisines borrowing traditional ingredients and methods from other cultures and incorporating them into our modern meals. This task provides students with a list of traditional foods and ingredients categorised into staple & grains, fruit & vegetables, meat & proteins, spices & herbs, and beverages consumed by the AZTECs, Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Greeks and Ancient Roman peoples. Students select a range of items to create a 3 course meal that they would want to eat if they were transported back to that particular era. There is also a short video clip associated with each culture to help students understand the type and styles of food eaten. Students then need to justify why they chose the particular foods/ingredients they’ve put into their 3 course meal, explain how the style of food differs from ours nowadays as well as identify which of the foods/ingredients they would or could incorporate into their daily diets. This is a great filler task for the end of a lesson or used as a homework task. Students can be tasked with creating a 3 course meal for each of the historical societies OR given the choice to select and complete a 3 course meal on one of the historical societies.

Needing a textiles task for a casual lesson, end of term filler or homework task? This Fabric & Textiles Online worksheet provides students with a range of questions and is divided into 3 components. The first part asks students to research types of textiles and fibres; the second part has students researching fabric types and their properties; and the third part examines apparel, clothing, customs and traditions related to cloth, how status impacts what people wear, colour significance and fashion. Students are provided with a list of recommended websites to help them get started with their research but are also required to locate appropriate sources to help them find answers to the remaining questions.

An important aspect of working in a kitchen is the ability to plan and organise tasks in a time efficient manner. Poor workflow can impact not only the running and morale of the kitchen but also customers who become dissatisfied with long wait times and low quality meals. This often leads to loss of profits and potentially closure of the kitchen/business. This worksheet explains the importance of a smooth running workflow, common mise en place tasks and the four important areas to consider when writing a workflow plan. There are two templates students have access to - one which has them allocate tasks to group members for team meals and one for tasks that require them to work individually on a recipe/meal. To really get students understanding the importance of incorporating a logical order of steps and complete a couple recipes at the same time, students are provided with two recipes - Japanese Dumplings and Arancini. Each step has been separated for a cut and paste style activity. Once students have laid out the order they think the steps should go in, run through it as a class before writing it fully into the workflow plan template, making note of required equipment. If there is the time and budget, cook the recipes over a practical lesson or two while students follow their workflow to determine whether they really placed each step in the correct order!

What is Military, Business Casual and Bohemian style clothing? What was the fashion like in the 1920’s, 60’s and early 2000’s? This worksheet provides students with a range of 6 clothing styles and 12 consecutive decades to research. Students are provided with a link to a specific website that discusses the identifying features, essential items, fabrics used, fabric care instructions and popular colours and accessories of each clothing style and decade identified on the worksheet. Students need to locate the appropriate information and rewrite it into their own words on the worksheet. This is a great filler lesson.

Nowadays most people use online reviews from websites such as TripAdvisor or Yelp to help them decide whether they should visit a particular restaurant or decide which meal they should try (or avoid!). With this 12 page Restaurant and Food Review task, students learn to write informative pieces based on their real world experiences of local restaurants, cafes or take-away shops (or even mum’s cooking if need be!). They will identify the differences between poorly written and quality written reviews, learn the importance of following a specific structure, brainstorm and draft their responses before providing their final review ready to share with the world. This task is easily adapted to any food situation and could even be used as a great intro to a cultural food feast where students write their reviews of the meals on offer to encourage and recommend their favourite to their peers!

Make learning about food poisoning bacteria FUN with these NOT WANTED posters. There’s 10 of them to display! Display them around the classroom to help students know where each horrendous foodborne illness pathogen hides, the symptoms if it catches you, and how to stop it spreading. There’s also a weird and creepy image for students to know what it will look like inside them if they catch it! The aim of these posters is to have students thinking about personal and environmental hygiene and food safety when in the kitchen so they don’t catch one of those deadly pathogens! Enhance their understanding by having students use the information on the posters to help them write up the bacterial reports in the Foodborne Illness Pathogen Report Task

Along with hygiene, cleanliness and preventing cross-contamination when working in the kitchen; another essential aspect for students to understand is the danger zone and how long high-risk foods can be out safely in this temperature range before bacteria multiply to high enough levels for form a food poisoning risk. This pack contains 3 important Food Safety posters, displaying the following concepts: The Temperature Danger Zone - the specific temperatures that form the highest risk, where to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold, and what happens to the bacteria in each temperature zone The 2hr 4hr Rule - showing how long potentially high-risk foods can be out of their appropriate storage conditions and in the danger zone, and what needs to happen with the food at each stage The Rate of Bacteria Replication and Growth - bacteria multiply every 20minutes! This poster shows students how many bacteria there would be every 20minutes until 4hrs and then after 6hrs, 9hrs and 12hrs. It shows the number if there was only one teeny tiny bacteria and if there was 1000 bacteria in our food before it was left out in the danger zone. This poster will get students thinking ‘I wonder how many bacteria are actually in my food before I start cooking with it…’ These posters can be laminated and displayed around the classroom or kitchen; or provided to students to assist with revision or developing an understanding of these important food safety concepts. A student who understands the importance of keeping food out of the danger zone is one who will keep their customers safe when working in the commercial kitchen.

Food poisoning is any illness caused by eating food or drink that is contaminated with certain types of bacteria, viruses or toxins and the symptoms can vary from mild to severe. This task provides students with background information on food poisoning, how to tell if they have had food poisoning as well as steps to keep themselves safe from it. Students are then required to pick one of the food poisoning bacteria listed in the task and research the specific causes, symptoms and treatment for that particular food poisoning pathogen. There is a scaffold provided and students can present their newfound knowledge in the form of a fact sheet. To finish off the task, there are four every day type scenarios provided. Students read through each scenario to identify the food safety and hygiene rules that have been broken and explain what each person in the scenario should have done instead to protect themselves from getting poisoned by their food. This is a great task to do with junior Food Technology/Family and Consumer Science students as it breaks down the complicated food poisoning pathogens phonetically and has the background information in an easy to read manner.

The culinary industry wouldn’t be what it is today without the ideas and inspirations of the vast array of chefs who have created edible masterpieces and experiences. This research task will help students discover the lives and inspirations behind these influencers and show their understanding in an oral and written presentation style format. Great as a filler lesson towards the end of the term, an introduction for a term of multicultural foods or set the research component for when the regular teacher is absent and the oral component for later. This task provides lots of examples of chefs students can choose to research, a range of questions they need to answer within their research, a score/marking form as well as an example written project that can be displayed to assist with student understanding. This is one of my go to lessons to keep students engaged!

Sometimes students just don’t understand the importance of washing their hands to stop bacterial transfer and cross-contamination when cooking. This hand hygiene experiment is a great way to physically show them the outcomes. It only takes a couple of pieces of bread, some Ziploc/sealable bags, time and of course, the observation sheet!

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) can be a complicated procedure for students to understand. This poster outlines the seven HACCP steps in an easy to understand manner with examples. Print the poster in A4 or A3 size and display around the kitchen or theory room for students to utilise when necessary. Once hazard identification has been completed the next step is to decide the Critical Control Points (CCP). This can be tricky, so included with the poster is a colourful CCP Decision Tree to help students work out if the hazards they’ve identified need a control measure to be applied in order to prevent, eliminate or reduce food safety hazards to an acceptable level.

Customer complaints are very much a part of working in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry. There is no way of preventing the odd complaint, but what can be avoided for both parties is the anguish in dealing with it. These worksheets provide essential information to students on WHY it is important to resolve customer complaints quickly and efficiently. It describes the HOW through the Seven Step Complaint Handling method in poster and flow chart format and provides a wide range of scenarios for students to role-play and determine the best course of action to resolve the problems presented in each situation.

The functional properties of food describes how ingredients behave during preparation and cooking; and how the finished product is affected in terms of how it looks, tastes and feels. This Functional Properties of Food task consists of a match-up activity where students are required to match the term to its definition (cut and laminate for re-use or provide copies to students to take home), and an extension worksheet where students are required to include the definition but add examples of the functional property as well as the factors that affect it. This extension worksheet is a great optional activity for those more advanced students or can be used as a homework task. This task is a great revision activity to determine how well students are understanding the content covered in class or used for revision in the lead up to exams and assessments. Answers are included.

Foodborne Illness or food poisoning is caused by bacteria and viruses getting into the food we eat. It can also be caused by toxins. This task provides students with a unique way to present their information - in a report card format. Students are asked to use the websites provided as well as their own research to locate the required information. For bacterial food poisoning, students need to identify the symptoms, typical food vehicles for transmission, treatment and prevention methods. For viral food poisoning, students are asked to use their research skills to find the missing information and for toxin related food poisoning, students are given all the identifying information except for the name and incubation periods. Depending on the level of your students, this task works well individually or for small groups and can be a wonderful revision activity for older students studying for their exams.

Revise fundamental math calculations through this Culinary Math booklet. There are 10 pages of questions and tasks which cover measurement, scaling, equipment, ingredient calculations, yields, conversion factors and recipe interpretation and comprehension. Plus Teacher answers so this booklet can be used as a standalone revision or homework task, teacher absentee lesson or as a kitchen numeracy/literacy lesson.