A well-plated meal not only appeals to the diner’s senses but also showcases the chef’s skills and creativity. The way a dish is presented can impact the diner’s overall dining event and leave a lasting impression on their experience with the hospitality establishment. This activity includes a PowerPoint Presentation (PPT) that covers tips and tricks for styling food for awesome food photography (also provided in a PDF version), 8 important elements to think about for a good food photo, as well as showcasing a range of plated meals for a Positive, Minus, Interesting (PMI) task. Notes from this PPT can be taken down in the Food Presentation, Styling and Garnishing work booklet. The work booklet also goes into detail on the differences between a garnish and a decoration; classic fruit, herb and vegetable garnishes; step-by-step methods for producing a range of garnishes; and all important tips for food presentation such as plate types, the ‘clock’, use of colour, height and avoiding symmetry. This task is perfect for Senior Food and Hospitality students who need to be thinking about and practicing plate presentation.

The wearing of clothing is a specifically human characteristic and most human societies wear some form of clothing. This comprehension task runs briefly through the types of clothing worn in ancient civilisations such as Ancient Greece, Rome, the Iron Age and the Byzantines and why they preferred to leave their fabric uncut. It also covers the Enlightenment period which introduced formal dress and ‘undress’ or casual clothing as well as how the Industrial Revolution impacted clothing as we know it today. Students read through the article and answer the questions. This can be done as a whole class task or set for individual students as part of a casual or filler lesson.

This Think-Tac-Toe game board provides three different levels of tasks for students to work through. Green tasks are labelled easy, orange tasks are moderate and red tasks are more in-depth and difficult. Students need to choose three tasks to make a tic-tac-toe row. The way the tasks are structured on the game board means students are unable to choose three easy tasks, they must select a range. Tasks include making a textiles related find-a-word to writing a fictional story around the ‘fibre to fabric’ theme to comparing and contrasting WW1 style clothing repair and mending. Scaffolds for all activities are included and can be allocated to students once they decide which tasks they want to work through. A perfect activity for a sequence of lessons left with a casual or relief teacher or for fun non-practical related lessons once the practical projects have been completed.

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.

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

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.

Needing a quick and easy but fun ice-breaker for a new cooking class? Look no further than these Cooking Verbs cards! Cut out and laminate each card (it makes it so easy to store and use for the next class or the next year), hand one card to each student, set a timer for 2 minutes and get students to race around trying to find their match. These cards match the cooking verb to a picture example of the verb, so they’re great to use as an ice-breaker task, a revision game at the end of the term or they can even be used as a match-up game for support/life skills or ESL students. To make the task a little more challenging, set a new 2 minute timer and have each pair brainstorm as many foods that link to their verb as they can (e.g. GRATE = carrot, apple, pear, onion, zucchini). The pair with the most correct, wins. There are 12 verbs for a class of 24 plus space to add your own!

It’s important to stay abreast of things happening in the Hospitality industry in order to meet Vocational criteria such as Source & Use Information on the Hospitality Industry. It also helps students to show their understanding of the industry to potential employers and in exams. This comprehension task is on the Salmonella food poisoning outbreak in Australia in 2019. Students are given two articles to read through and in conjunction with their knowledge of food poisoning bacteria and any additional research, respond to the questions in as much detail as they can.

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!

This THIS VS THAT quiz game is a great nutrition revision resource for senior Food/PE students or it can be a fun filler lesson for a junior class. Students are given the choice of two options along with a question such as which has more caffeine per 100ml? the Red Bull energy drink or the can of Coca-Cola. Students need to note down their answer on the worksheet along with their reasoning. Vote as a class and go with majority rules to click on the answer. Was the majority correct? Did they make a lucky guess or do they need to brush up on their nutrition understanding? Is their favourite food as healthy for them as they think it is? There are 20 questions comparing items from total fat content to energy, caffeine, carbohydrates, iron, protein and sugar. At the end of the quiz on the back of the worksheet, there are some extension questions for students to work through. The zip file contains the worksheet and the slide presentation in PPT and PDF format. All options in both the PPT and PDF are hyperlinked directly to the answers which makes it easy for the class to see how right or wrong they were!

Knowing how to eat healthy is a vital aspect to having a healthy mind and body. Our bodies can’t make nutrients so knowing the foods that are high in essential nutrients helps us make informed choices about the foods we eat. This research task asks students to select one of the 6 important nutrients, outline its importance for the body, identify the minimum and maximum daily requirements, explain what happens if we are deficient in it as well as locating a short recipe that provides the body with a good amount of the nutrient. Task includes marking criteria.

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!

Herbs and spices are used to add colour, variety and unique flavours to food. Herbs and spices also come from different components of plants. This task utilises student fine motor skills of cutting and pasting with digital research to track down which part of the plant each herb and spice comes from. There is a classification table that should be printed A3 size for each student and 4 (printed on A4) pages (a total of 28 herbs and spices) flash cards for students to cut out. Answers are included. This activity is a great one for giving to Life Skills or Support students while the remainder of the class is working through the more in depth Herbs & Spices Research Task

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.

It’s important to stay abreast of things happening in the Hospitality industry in order to meet Vocational criteria such as Source & Use Information on the Hospitality Industry. It also helps students to show their understanding of the industry to potential employers and in exams. This comprehension task is on the current trend of video resumes (AKA the Visume!). Students are given an article to read through and in conjunction with their knowledge of how the industry works, respond to the questions in as much detail as they can. Then they get the opportunity to put knowledge into practice by developing their own visume!

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!

Get students practising and recognizing the names and types of equipment used in kitchen and cooking rooms. There are 24 pairs of game cards that require students to match the name of the equipment to its image. Students can play MEMORY or SNAP as a lesson plenary, or during a lesson as a MATCH-UP task to glue into workbooks.

Organise your cool room or fridge/freezer with these great tray or trolley tags. It covers everything you or your Food Prep Assistant needs to know to have the ingredient trays or trolleys set up and ready to go for each recipe for each class. These tags cover: day of the week, lesson period required, whether your are DEMonstrating the recipe or your students are completing their PRACtical, teacher name, class name and even space for the recipe name or specific notes/additions required. Particularly useful if you or your Food Prep Assistant has a lot of classes/recipes/ingredients to sort and set up over the week. The tags can also be used if you have your students bringing in their own ingredients - just get them to set their ingredients up on their own tray or trolley and add their name, class, lesson, day and recipe. It makes it super easy to see when and who the ingredients are being used for!

Have a few students forget to bring their kitchen safety shoes or uniform for cooking lessons? Or have some rowdy students who need some extra revision before being allowed to participate in any more of the cooking practicals? This No Prac Kitchen Workbook provides students with a variety of written theory activities ranging from kitchen equipment and safety to healthy eating and reading recipes. There’s a teacher sign off and progress record for students to fill in at the end of each lesson to easily see how solidly they worked during lesson. This booklet could also be used as a homework or revision booklet to help students consolidate their knowledge and understanding of correct kitchen procedures.

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.