Cooking Consensus

Teaching cooking the Leeds way

Leeds aspires to be the best city for health and well-being by supporting people to have the choice, access and skills to eat food that is right for their stage of life. Cooking skills have been shown to have the unique ability to influence behaviours, attitudes and confidence. Cooking activities are able to promote healthy eating key messages in a way that is meaningful to people’s daily lives. Preparing and sharing food is a fantastic way to bring together different people within a community and has the power to teach healthier eating, improve cooking skills, boost self-confidence and create friendships.

A variety of different cooking activities are delivered across Leeds by a variety of partners.The Leeds Food Forum “Eatwell Forum” has devised the consensus below to support workers to deliver cooking activities.

  • The Leeds Food Cooking Good Practice Guide (available at is a useful tool to help with the delivery of cooking courses.The guide references the importance of:

General planning

Finding the right venue with the right equipment available

Conducting a risk assessment and considering food hygiene/ health and safety

Considering how key messages fit with the recipes chosen

Group facilitation skills

  • Community cooking courses work best when they involve the community in the planning and are developed to meet a specific need. For example “cooking on a budget”.
  • Cooking courses should help people to enjoy cooking, learn basic food skills and apply food hygiene and healthier eating messages. They support people to make informed decisions about what they eat.
  • Public Health and the Active Lifestyles Service provide Healthy Living Training which shouldbe accessed by those who facilitate cooking courses to quality assure delivery of cooking skills across the city. The one-day course runs 6 times per year at no cost to the participant. For more information please contact:
  • Cookery project leaders should complete a minimum Level 2 Food Hygiene training course. You can find out information about suitable courses from your local library, further education college, or by contacting one of the awarding bodies for food safety. You can find details about awarding bodies on the internet.
  • Public Health commissions the Ministry of Food project as part of One You Leeds to provide cooking opportunities. The service is a useful signposting opportunity for cooking course leaders who are interested in viewing a quality assured cooking course, or members of the public who would like further cooking support. For more information visit: service also provides a free “Food Skills Training Course” to share the basic considerations of planning cooking activities for frontline workers. For more information please contact: (coming soon March 2018)
  • The Eat Well Food Forum is a useful networking forum which can support local organisations to deliver cooking skills. The group has a variety of skills and expertise around delivering cooking to a range of different audiences. The group is a useful point of contact for anyone starting to think about the delivery of cooking sessions and manages a distribution list which can be joined in order to stay up to date with the latest nutrition information. The group have devised the Leeds Food Work Evaluation tools to evaluate cooking courses. The tools include a before, after and 6 month follow up assessment questionnaire to measure behaviour changes and other outcomes attributable to cooking courses. For more information about joining the group, distribution list or to access the evaluation tools please