The Co-op has launched new free online cooking courses today as part of a social media campaign to tackle a kitchen skills gap among young Brits.
The Now Cook It mobile-enabled website went live today, following its partnership with Youtube cooking channel SORTEDfood.
The site will deliver videos and tips on core cooking skills, along with step-by-step recipes, and aims to tap 18 to 35-year-olds phones to provide instant access and inspiration.
The course includes a series of videos to teach viewers how to conduct basic and more technical cooking techniques, as well as a series of recipes.
Last year a study by the Co-op showed that 25% of 18 to 35-year-olds were not interested in learning how to cook and 28% of those who couldn’t cook “didn’t see why they should learn”.
It said a generation of “stay-at-mum-and-dads 18 to 30-somethings” admitted they had lost the will to learn how to prepare food for themselves.
“People want to be inspired with new, novel and different ways of cooking, and if they aren’t better equipped and motivated to learn, this age of cooks won’t hold the skills to pass on to future generations,” said Co-op CEO Richard Pennycook.
“When our Co-op was founded over 170 years ago, stores had classrooms above them teaching young people to read and write. Our exciting partnership with SORTEDfood is a modern day interpretation of Co-op’s longstanding commitment to help equip a new generation with a different but equally important, set of skills, and making them accessible for all.”
Jamie Spafford, co-founder of SORTEDfood, said: “Learning to cook with friends through social media is what we are all about and I guess that’s why SORTEDfood has become a movement of people that are filling the education gap. That said, we’ve been surprised at the depth of this problem in the UK.”
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