I taught them to cook vidya4 - Flipbook - Page 44
42
Autumn Term
‘Write these words in your exercise books to describe for
homework.’
My chalk stub makes teeth tingling screeches on the black
roller board.
Milk, Sour, Curds, Whey, Rennet, Enzyme, Cheese.
Half the class gets out their pens and exercise books. Half
follow Gavin and do nothing. I’ve printed out homework sheets
on the school Banda machine which I’ll hand out at the end of
the lesson. It’s not worth a fight now. Cheese and curds could go
everywhere.
‘Let’s start the cheese tasting.’
For their cheese tasting I’ve bought large chunks of Cheddar,
Caerphilly, Lancashire and Double Gloucester from Budgens
supermarket using my tiny food budget. This lesson is educational
so they don’t pay. Just like they don’t pay for chemicals in
Chemistry or paint in Art classes. My food budget is running out
and I need to talk to the headmaster as more students keep being
sent to join my lessons.
Cynthia, my right hand helper, chops the cheeses into tiny
pieces and labels them. Equal pieces. Yes, the same size pieces.
Pieces that look the same to avoid ‘His is bigger… smaller than
mine.’
Everyone has a plate, a wooden cocktail stick to spear their
cheese chunks, one Jacob’s Cream Cracker and a glass of palatecleansing water. And a tasting chart to fill in with a mark out of
ten for each cheese.
I’d like them to learn new tastes but I bet I know the results.
‘Which is your favourite cheese, class?’
‘Cheddar.’
‘What about all the others?’
‘We don’t like ‘em, we only like Cheddar.’
‘What cheese would you choose to crumble onto cheese on
toast?’
‘Cheddar.’