First there was life imitating art, then chefs imitating ministries and now it would seem, ministers imitating chefs...
Ed Balls, the children's minister, has today launched a new "Learning recipes for Life" initiative, aimed at teaching the nation's pupils to cook.
Under the proposals, £3.3m will be spent recruiting specialist teaching assistants and training staff to run practical cooking lessons, and £53m will be given to secondary schools for new cooking facilities. The move is expected pave the way for compulsory cookery classes in secondary schools from 2011.
Supermarkets are also being urged to "help get families cooking". Balls says he is working with Aldi and Asda, while holding discussions with other major supermarkets, to promote the government's Real Meals cookbook (pdf).
Jamie Oliver eat your heart out...
