TOP chefs from around York have been going back to school to help teach kids the importance of healthy eating.

The chefs are teaming up with local schools in a scheme run by York Hospitality Association, working with North Yorkshire Business And Education Partnership (NYBEP).

The project is running over the next three to four months.

James Lowe, chef and proprietor of Villa Italia in Micklegate, has been going to Poppleton Ousebank Primary School over the past weeks and teaching youngsters how to cook bread. He said the aim was to get children away from what he called the "microwave and slam it in the oven" culture of cooking convenience food and teach them from an early age the importance of homemade sustenance.

He said: "Last week we taught the children how to make spinach bread, and although they all knew what spinach was and said they didn't like it, when I asked them how many of them had tried it, none of them had."

James, who has two nursery aged girls, said the younger that children learn what went into food and how to cook well, the better.

There are 400 children at Poppleton Ousebank, and head teacher Tim Wilkinson said he was delighted James had taken the time to explain about food to youngsters of all ages.

He said: "The children have really enjoyed working with James. He has a great manner, and the best thing is that once they have finished cooking they can take the bread home and eat it."

The executive member for education on City of York Council, Councillor Carol Runciman, said: "I think it's very important that children see that food can be fun and exciting, because we live in a fast food society and bringing in a chef and showing children it is exciting is a great way of doing that."

Jane Currie, from York Hospitality Association, worked to link up the chefs with the schools, and said they had been overwhelmed by the response from schools.

She said: "This is an excellent benefit to schools just now, with their focus both in the curriculum and in the news on healthy eating.

"It's a brilliant example of the way that business and education can work together for everybody's benefit."

James Lowe's recipe for "a really nice loaf of bread":

Ingredients:

1lb flour, 0.5oz salt, one large spoon olive oil, 1oz fresh yeast and 9fl oz water.

1. Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly.

2. Knead well.

3. Put the mixture in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave for an hour.

4. Re-knead the mixture. If you want, add any extra ingredients at this point - for example, chocolate or cheese.

5. Put the mixture into a large baking tin, and bake for 35 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 220C (450F, gas mark 6).

6. Eat up. It's delicious!

Updated: 09:20 Wednesday, December 01, 2004