The Wharekai - Room 12

In Room 12 we are all excited about getting into the wharekai to cook. But before that we are all required to know the kitchen safety rules.

Everyone needs to wear closed up shoes in the kitchen to protect our feet in case we drop anything on our toes. Hair needs to be tied back so we can see what we are doing while we are cooking. Wash your hands - this is for hygiene purposes. You are handling food so hands need to be clean. We wear our aprons with our name tags on. The purpose for wearing the aprons is to keep our uniforms clean. The name tags are for our wonderful volunteers Mrs Sarah Powell and Mrs Jackson so that they know our names.

Identifying the danger points in the kitchen is very vital too. We were able to identify the danger points. They were

• ·       No running in the kitchen
• ·       Hot surfaces (Stove tops)
• ·       Cleaning up liquid spills on the floor

·       Knife Skills.

We were shown how to hold the sharp knife correctly when we were taking it to the sink to get washed - holding the knife to the side of our body. We held the handle of the sharp knife pointing towards the ground.

The class was shown how to pass a knife, so we practised passing the sharp knife to our buddy next to us.

Never put a knife in the sink with soapy water. The reason for that is the person washing cannot see the knife through the soapy water.

Using the knife we learnt to chopping skills with the knife.

Tap chop

• Thumb at the buck of the vegetable with your fingers tucked under.
• Blade does not come above your knuckles.

Cross Chop

• ·       Hand is flat on blunt side of the knife.    .
• ·       Knife tips stays on the chopping board
• ·       The handle moves up and down.

Now we have all done the kitchen safety rules and knife skills. We are ready for our first cooking lesson which will be on Thursday 8^th March 2018.