Growing up in Sunderland: Remembering the first dishes you learned to cook during childhood on Wearside

We can’t all have the cookery skills of Masterchef star Stacie Stewart and Hairy Biker Si King – but we will give it a good go!
By Debra Fox
Published 18th Apr 2024, 04:51 BST
Updated 18th Apr 2024, 11:13 BST

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While our kitchen repertoires may vary, many of us will remember the first thing we ever whipped up (or tried to, anyway) in the kitchen. From fairy cakes with mam and nana, to rock buns or scones in the school kitchen – all budding chefs have to start somewhere.

Thousands of people with links to Sunderland are part of the gang on our Wearside Echoes Facebook group – and lately we have been talking about the first things you learned to cook, and the things you love to eat.

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A nine-course menu of retro cookery lessons in Sunderland schools
Students put their cookery skills to the test at Farringdon School. But what was the first thing you made in the kitchen?Students put their cookery skills to the test at Farringdon School. But what was the first thing you made in the kitchen?
Students put their cookery skills to the test at Farringdon School. But what was the first thing you made in the kitchen?
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Did you get your Cooking Activity badge at Cubs, take a turn with dinners at home or confine yourself to a range of things on toast? Let’s find out what you’ve been making ...

Here are some of your kitchen admissions from Wearside Echoes. All are welcome to join the discussion on our retro Facebook community here.

David Shillito: “Sausage rolls by Miss Browell at school, 58 years ago, still enjoy cooking.”

Joanne Johnson: “Rock buns - at school.”

Pennywell Comprehensive School pupil Lisa Carr, 13, won a place in the regional final of the Junior Cook of the Year competition in April 1985. Could you have given the contest a go?Pennywell Comprehensive School pupil Lisa Carr, 13, won a place in the regional final of the Junior Cook of the Year competition in April 1985. Could you have given the contest a go?
Pennywell Comprehensive School pupil Lisa Carr, 13, won a place in the regional final of the Junior Cook of the Year competition in April 1985. Could you have given the contest a go?

Nikki Usher: “Blancmange at school! Never made it since!”

Lavinia Waller: “I cooked the Sunday roast dinner from being 11 years old as my mother worked Sunday mornings. I even mastered Yorkshire puddings, helped by our lovely neighbour. Mam used to serve it up when she got home.”

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Paul Kerry Middlemist: “Eggs and chips in the Cubs. (Got my badge for that one).”

Karen Mallin: “Cinnamon on toast at Monkwearmouth Grammar School, who the hell eats that?”

Reginald John Hewins: “Roast tatties in the embers of a bonfire.”

Katrina O'Connor: “Probably fairy cakes by my gran when I was three or four.”

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Brenda O'Neill: “Our Mam showed us how to make pastry, bread, pies cakes from an early age. Doing cookery lessons at school from the age of 11 was easy for me and my two sisters.”

Janice Thompson: “Been cooking since I was about eight. Cooked for the whole family when I was 10, when my mother was confined to bed when she had a baby. In those days you learned by watching your mother in the kitchen, school cookery lessons were a doddle.”

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