Free cook books teach 11-year-olds how to eat right

All 11-year-olds in England will be able to receive a free cookbook as part of a new initiative aimed at tackling obesity.

Ministers are also announcing that £151m will be spent building food technology areas in schools. The initiatives are designed to pave the way for compulsory cooking lessons for all 11- to 14-year olds by 2011.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls said everyone should be able to prepare basic, nutritious dishes from scratch instead of "taking pride" in not being able to cook properly. "Too many people just accept they cannot cook or simply do not have time for it," he said. "We've lost touch with making basic dishes from scratch, even though there has never been a wider range of food in our shops. Schools are only part of the solution - at the end of the day parents bring up children, not teachers. It will be great if young people had the chance to make healthy dishes from basic ingredients at home, not simply in the classroom – as I did when I was growing up."

The cookbook has a foreword by top chef Phil Vickery. He said: "Cooking is a skill and often it is not learned at an early enough age. Once you can cook the basics you will have the best survival tool in the box to take you into adult life. Eating good quality meals made from basic ingredients should be part of everyone's daily experience and by learning how to prepare simple and nutritious meals we will make this a reality."