The pupils at Canvastown School were treated to a cooking demonstration with the newly named Marlborough Farmers' Market mobile kitchen on Wednesday last week.

The mobile kitchen has been named the Kids Can Cook Kitchen - a name that pupils from Canvastown School came up with. "This is the first official visit to a school as the Kids Can Cook Kitchen," said Marlborough Farmers' Market founder Chris Fortune.

The mobile kitchen is a project of the farmers' market in partnership with the Nelson/Marlborough District Health Board.

Built last year, the kitchen has travelled around New Zealand visiting farmers' markets , has been trialled at 10 schools around the South Island.

"The trials were hugely successful and so we are officially launching it today, which is actually exactly a year since the kitchen was built," Chris said.

"We invited kids from Canvastown to come up with a name for it and they suggested a couple good ones, but in the end we went with Kids Can Cook Kitchen."

The kitchen is sponsored by the Havelock Mussel Festival, Marlborough A&P Show and Canterbury A&P Show, and according to Chris will be self-sustaining.

He said he wanted to focus on teaching young kids how to cook, especially healthy meals using produce that they have grown themselves, either in their school gardens or at home.

"I'm a parent and I have seen a lot of parents that are either too busy or to scared to pass cooking skills onto their kids. They worry about letting them loose in the kitchen."

The cold and rainy weather didnot dampen the spirits of the pupils at Canvastown School as the name of the mobile kitchen was unveiled to them.

They were treated to a cooking demonstration by Marlborough Girls' College year 13 student, Jordan Shallcrast and Marlborough Boys' College year 12 student, Jamie Perrout, both of whom have had training from accomplished chef Chris.

Jordan's crepes and Jamie's Canvastown egg rolls used ingredients picked from the school's vegetable garden, and were a big hit with the pupils. "This isn't just about cooking, it's about mother nature, learning life skills and resilience," said Chris, who is a staunch advocate of growing your own produce in an environmentally friendly way.

Canvastown School principal, Karen Kellaway said they were thrilled the pupils got to name the kitchen and were happy to have them back for another cooking demonstration.

"They did one last year. Chris is great with the kids and they love the cooking demonstrations," said Karen.

- The Marlborough Express

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