Cooking with a Chef

Cooking with a Chef was created to promote healthy eating behaviors among caregivers by teaching basic nutrition and food preparation skills. A chef/dietitian team collaborated on lively, interactive cooking lessons emphasizing culinary skills and hands-on learning. Lessons were conducted in 2-hour weekly sessions for 6 consecutive weeks. Data were collected pre and post intervention using a 24-hour Food Recall, Food Behavior Checklist, and program evaluation. Cooking with A Chef had a positive effect on food-related behaviors of caregivers, suggesting that this model program is an opportunity to reach low-income families. A long-term follow-up evaluation is needed

Creative Inquiry: using a Positive Feedback Loop to Develop Career Skills and Graduate Student Mentors

Undergraduate and graduate students work through an academic year in a Creative Inquiry (CI) culinary nutrition research project. A feedback loop presents the undergraduate members of the CI with the opportunity to be mentored through their investigations by a graduate student and faculty to develop new skills important for their future education and career goals

Cook Like a Chef 1- and 4-Week Camp Models

Children participating in cooking classes gain confidence in their abilities to prepare food. If children are to make informed, healthy, food ingredient and cooking method choices, they need to be equipped with these necessary skills, as well as with nutrition competence. Extension programs that incorporate nutrition and hands-on cooking can present a challenge; yet with tools and support this mission can be accomplished with ease and finesse

When chefs adopt a school? An evaluation of a cooking intervention in English primary schools

This article sets out the findings from research on the impact of a, UK based, chefs in schools teaching programme on food, health, nutrition and cookery. Professional chefs link with local schools, where they deliver up to three sessions to one class over a year. The research measured the impact of a standardised intervention package and changes in food preparation and consumption as well as measuring cooking confidence. The target group was 9–11 year olds in four schools. The main data collection method was a questionnaire delivered 2 weeks before the intervention and 2 weeks afterwards. There was a group of four matched control schools. Those taking part in the intervention were enthused and engaged by the sessions and the impact measures indicated an intention to change. There were gains in skills and confidence to prepare and ask for the ingredients to be purchased for use in the home. Following the session with the chef, the average reported cooking confidence score increased from 3.09 to 3.35 (by 0.26 points) in the intervention group – a statistically significant improvement. In the control group this change was not statistically significant. Children’s average reported vegetable consumption increased after the session with the chef, with the consumption score increasing from 2.24 to 2.46 points (0.22 points) again, a statistically significant increase with no significant changes in the control group. The research highlights the need to incorporate evaluation into school cooking initiatives as the findings can provide valuable information necessary to fine-tune interventions and to ensure consistency of the healthy eating messages

Factors associated with development of excessive fatness in children and adolescents: a review of prospective studies

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99011/1/obr12035.pd

Domestic Cooking and Food Skills: A Review

Domestic cooking skills (CS) and food skills (FS) encompass multiple components, yet there is a lack of consensus on their constituent parts, inter-relatedness or measurement, leading to limited empirical support for their role in influencing dietary quality. This review assessed the measurement of CS and FS in adults (>16 years); critically examining study designs, psychometric properties of measures, theoretical basis and associations of CS/FS with diet. Electronic databases (PsychInfo), published reports and systematic reviews on cooking and home food preparation interventions (Rees et al. 2012 ; Reicks et al. 2014 ) provided 834 articles of which 26 met the inclusion criteria. Multiple CS/FS measures were identified across three study designs: qualitative; cross-sectional; and dietary interventions; conducted from 1998-2013. Most measures were not theory-based, limited psychometric data was available, with little consistency of items or scales used for CS/FS measurements. Some positive associations between CS/FS and FV intake were reported; though lasting dietary changes were uncommon. The role of psycho-social (e.g., gender, attitudes) and external factors (e.g. food availability) on CS/FS is discussed. A conceptual framework of CS/FS components is presented for future measurement facilitation, which highlights the role for CS/FS on food-related behaviour and dietary quality. This will aid future dietary intervention design

The impact of video technology on learning: A cooking skills experiment

This study examines the role of video technology in the development of cooking skills. The study explored the views of 141 female participants on whether video technology can promote confidence in learning new cooking skills to assist in meal preparation. Prior to each focus group participants took part in a cooking experiment to assess the most effective method of learning for low-skilled cooks across four experimental conditions (recipe card only; recipe card plus video demonstration; recipe card plus video demonstration conducted in segmented stages; and recipe card plus video demonstration whereby participants freely accessed video demonstrations as and when needed). Focus group findings revealed that video technology was perceived to assist learning in the cooking process in the following ways: (1) improved comprehension of the cooking process; (2) real-time reassurance in the cooking process; (3) assisting the acquisition of new cooking skills; and (4) enhancing the enjoyment of the cooking process. These findings display the potential for video technology to promote motivation and confidence as well as enhancing cooking skills among low-skilled individuals wishing to cook from scratch using fresh ingredients

How was the cooking skills and healthy eating evaluation questionnaire culturally adapted to Brazil?

The study described the cross-cultural adaptation process of the American Cooking Skills and Healthy Eating questionnaire to Brazil. Six stages were followed: Translation; Synthesis of translations; Back-translations; Expert Committee; Synthesis of final version; and the Pretest (self-administered online questionnaire in a Brazilian University). Participants responded to the translated questionnaire twice for test-retest. Conceptual, item, semantic, operational and measurement equivalences were evaluated between original and translated questionnaires, as well as the internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Item, conceptual, semantic equivalences between original and Brazilian questionnaires were reached before the Expert Committee stage. Specific cooking techniques and terms were adapted. Forty-eight students answered the questionnaire in the pre-test stage, achieving the operational and measurement equivalences with kappa's agreement from moderate to substantial, and satisfactory to excellent correlations between measures. Only two measures showed low internal consistency. The combination of stages and equivalences approaches used in this cross cultural adaptation study provided lessons for further Nutrition's researches, disclosing the complexity of cooking skills concepts

Critical review of behaviour change techniques applied in intervention studies to improve cooking skills and food skills among adults

BACKGROUND: Cooking and food skills interventions have grown in popularity; however, there is a lack of transparency as to how these interventions were designed, highlighting a need to identify and understand the mechanisms of behavior change so that effective components may be introduced in future work. This study critiques cooking and food skills interventions in relation to their design, behavior change techniques (BCTs), theoretical underpinnings, and outcomes. METHODS: A 40-item CALO-RE taxonomy was used to examine the components of 59 cooking and food skills interventions identified by two systematic reviews. Studies were coded by three independent coders. RESULTS: The three most frequently occurring BCTs identified were #1 Provide information on consequences of behavior in general; #21 Provide instruction on how to perform the behavior; and #26 Prompt Practice. Fifty-six interventions reported positive short-term outcomes. Only 14 interventions reported long-term outcomes containing BCTs relating to information provision. CONCLUSION: This study reviewed cooking and food skills interventions highlighting the most commonly used BCTs, and those associated with long-term positive outcomes for cooking skills and diet. This study indicates the potential for using the BCT CALO-RE taxonomy to inform the design, planning, delivery and evaluation of future interventions

The development and validation of measures to assess cooking skills and food skills

BACKGROUND: With the increase use of convenience food and eating outside the home environment being linked to the obesity epidemic, the need to assess and monitor individuals cooking and food skills is key to help intervene where necessary to promote the usage of these skills. Therefore, this research aimed to develop and validate a measure for cooking skills and one for food skills, that are clearly described, relatable, user-friendly, suitable for different types of studies, and applicable across all sociodemographic levels. METHODS: Two measures were developed in light of the literature and expert opinion and piloted for clarity and ease of use. Following this, four studies were undertaken across different cohorts (including a sample of students, both 'Food preparation novices' and 'Experienced food preparers', and a nationally representative sample) to assess temporal stability, psychometrics, internal consistency reliability and construct validity of both measures. Analysis included T-tests, Pearson's correlations, factor analysis, and Cronbach's alphas, with a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: Both measures were found to have a significant level of temporal stability (P < 0.001). Factor analysis revealed three factors with eigenvalues over 1, with two items in a third factor outside the two suggested measures. The internal consistency reliability for the cooking skills confidence measure ranged from 0.78 to 0.93 across all cohorts. The food skills confidence measure's Cronbach's alpha's ranged from 0.85 to 0.94. The two measures also showed a high discriminate validity as there were significant differences (P < 0.05 for cooking skills confidence and P < 0.01 for food skills confidence) between Food preparation novices' and 'Experienced food preparers.' CONCLUSIONS: The cooking skills confidence measure and the food skills confidence measure have been shown to have a very satisfactory reliability, validity and are consistent over time. Their user-friendly applicability make both measures highly suitable for large scale cross-sectional, longitudinal and intervention studies to assess or monitor cooking and food skills levels and confidence