I taught them to cook vidya4 - Flipbook - Page 3
The Autumn Term 1972
Spag bog
lass! Today we’re making a new dish – spaghetti bolognese.
On the TV, the cook Zena Skinner said you throw the
spaghetti at the wall and if it’s cooked it will stick.’
‘Yuk’ comes a mumble from the stools around my table. I’m
their new cookery teacher and they’re testing me out. They don’t
know yet that I’ve never cooked spaghetti before. Never eaten it
either. There’s a lot else they don’t know about me but I’m not
sharing secrets. Not yet and probably not ever at school.
‘You can’t buy spaghetti around here so I’ve bought some from
a shop near me. You’ve probably eaten Heinz spaghetti in a tin,
but this is different.’
Should I compare the choices in their east London shops to
the plentiful offerings from Turkish and Caribbean stalls near
my Hampstead flat?
I tip out the golden strands from a long cylinder of dark blue
paper with an Italian label.
‘Not eating that.’ mutters a lumpen boy from one of the stools.
Bert is a name that I learnt in my first few days. He said he’d
rather go fishing than come to school and never ever chose to be
in my classes.
‘Listen Bert. Watch as I make the bolognese. Just four
ingredients – mince, lard, onions and tomato ketchup.’
‘Me dad won’t eat that. He’ll give it to the dog.’
‘Class. Gather round my gas cooker and watch me cook.’
I melt a lump of lard in a frying pan, brown the mince and onions,
‘C
1