Culinary celebration creations

Before you begin 

• Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here.  Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely. 
• Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers. 

Setting up this activity

• You could run this activity as a 'Bake off' style event, while you prepare for a party or other celebration with the final dishes being made for or judged at the event.
• You may want to run this activity over several weeks.

Using a kitchen and preparing to cook  

• You could run our kitchen safety and hygiene activities, Kitchen risk bingo and Home kitchen hygiene prior to running this session. 
• Remember to have a hand washing station and take extra hygiene precautions when handling raw meat, such as regular hand washing, having separate equipment for raw and cooked meat, and washing up equipment as soon as it's been used. Take a look at our guidance on food preparation. 
• Make sure you have all the ingredients ready.  
• Remember to check your ingredients against any allergy or dietary requirements to ensure everyone can enjoy the recipe. This may mean using alternative ingredients. 

Having a safe cooking source 

1. Make sure that everyone’s fires have been built outdoors in clear, open areas, with plenty of ventilation, and away from any areas where people will be sleeping.  
2. All the fires need to burn down to hot embers before they can start cooking. This increases the chance of the fuel burning without enough oxygen present, increasing the risk of carbon monoxide exposure. We’ve more guidance on different cooking methods. 
3. If using a gas stove, make sure it’s on a stable heatproof surface and in a clear and open area, with plenty of ventilation. 

Designing your dish 

1. Gather everyone in a circle. Tell everyone that at special events, such as at Eid or Christmas, special dishes can be made. 
2. Explain that everyone will need to work in small groups to research and design a dish to celebrate an upcoming event. They might design a lunchtime meal, a brilliant breakfast or a tasty dinner. Alternatively, they could make a cake, biscuits, a snack or a sandwich filling. The options are endless! 
3. Divide everyone into group of around four people. 
4. Give the groups 15 to 20 minutes to the research the food that might be used at the celebration, in the people celebrating's culture or that's from a certain country. You could do some research first and print out some information before the activity for everyone to look at, or people could use the internet during the session if you’d have access to it. 
5. They should then design the dish they want to make. They’ll need to work together and make sure everyone’s ideas are included. 
6. Once they’ve designed their dish, ask everyone to create a list of ingredients and equipment they’ll need to create the dish.  
7. Make sure you’ll have all the equipment that each group needs, then set a plan for who’s bringing the ingredients to the meeting. 

Culinary creations 

1. Ask everyone to get into their groups. Everybody should have washed their hands before handling any food. Remind everyone to regular wash their hands while cooking. 
2. Make sure everyone has all their equipment and ingredients ready.  
3. Give everyone the time to make their dish. Make sure you have adult volunteers or young leaders around to help everyone who needs it. 
4. When all the dishes have been prepared, give each group the opportunity to present their dish to the whole group and give everyone the opportunity to try the dish if they would like too. 
5. After all the dishes have been tried, it’s time to clean up. Make use everyone gets involved and if there is any leftover food you could donate it to a local food bank.