Manchester Adult Education Service

FREE 5 & 10 week Cooking Programmes

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Want to learn to cook affordable, healthy & tasty food from scratch?

We can show you, as well as discuss a healthy diet, nutrition, how to minimise food waste, bulk cooking, the importance of introducing a wide range of flavours to children, making use of leftovers, saving money & time, how to see through the marketing, the dangers of processed foods and labelling, plus basic hygiene and safe food handling.

We shall provide a Certificate of Achievement at the end of the programme. We shall accompany this programme with a full recipe booklet outlining recipes and how to replace ingredients with what’s available. It will also be available for you to photograph using your phone.

Places will be limited – so book quick (see application form below). This is good for CVs, your wallet & tastebuds too!

We look forward to cooking with you!

For more info contact: adele@crackinggoodfood.org

Dates & Venues

Please contact adele@crackinggoodfood.org for programmes running in Chorlton, Cheetham Hill, Openshaw & Old Moat.

Further information

Weekly Programme

  • Week 1 – Curries, rice and chapattis.
  • Week 2 – Italian: Pasta & sauces
  • Week 3 – Stews & pastry (pies, oven dependent) or with jacket potatoes
  • Week 4 – Tasty veg like you’ve never tasted before (cabbage, carrots, mash) with chickpeas/tofu
  • Week 5 – Pizzas (using oven or pan)
  • Week 6 – Stir fry/noodles
  • Week 7 – Cheap meat cuts & mushy peas (slow cooked)
  • Week 8 – Savoury pancakes
  • Week 9 – Mexican: guacamole, wraps, refried beans, tortillas
  • Week 10 – Your choice!

  • We have been funded to deliver 10 week Cooking programmes, three times, in 4 hostels across Manchester by Manchester Adult Education Service (MAES). A 120 cooking sessions. The first one starts on Wed 2nd October from 6-9pm in Chorlton. And YOU are welcome to join us. NB: Addresses will be disclosed pending receipt of DBS and completed form below. 
  • Each session will last for 3 hours and will also include the setting up & clearing down of the cooking space. This is of equal importance as it enables everyone to share tasks as well as the experience, making them fully aware of the whole process, in order that it can be replicated elsewhere.
  • We can provide a Career Professional Development CPDCertificate & Certificate of Attendance to use as evidence of your Continued Professional Development.
  • If you are DBS checked, you can attend these courses (subject to confirmation of status with the hostel). We will run them from 4 points across Manchester on different days/dates. The schedule and venue details will be made available once your DBS has been authorised.
  • An enrolment form will need to be filled out at the beginning of the session (we can email in this in advance). We will expect a commitment from the attendee.
  • Attendance must be arranged a week before the start of the course. We expect full attendance over the 10 weeks. A telephone call must be made to report an absence preferably 24 hours before the start of the session.
  • Funding of these courses is dependent upon attendance. Failure to attend would prevent another person from doing so and could potentially prevent the classes from running long term. We need your commitment.
  • Each week there will be a different dish cooked, predominantly vegetarian but focusing on affordable & sustainable meat for one specific session. We will advise on how to add meat if required, but cost & health & safety reasons (transporting it), will need to be taken into consideration. Where possible, dietary needs on medical and faith grounds will be accommodated in the session as long as sufficient notice is given.
  • For those unsure or less confident there is a great deal of learning to be gained from just listening and watching. All sessions are fully participatory, eating together at the end to reinforce the social aspect of food.
  • We shall be providing pdfs of all recipes with how to be resourceful by utilising food with a short use by date, bulk cooking, budgeting, using stock cupboard essentials etc.
  • We strongly adhere to the Council’s Climate Emergency plan so will strongly discourage use of single plastics, unnecessary packaging, disposables and encourage the Re-Fuse, Re-Use and Re-Cycle system.
  • We shall make use of surplus unwanted food where available and promote the growing of ones’ own, as well as purchasing food from local shops in order to boost the local economy.

Application Form

    Personal details

    Data Barring Service Data

    (A copy of the DBS clearance must be sent to us for approval)

    Organisation Details




    Cooking in Hostels: how we began

    Our work with hostels began in 2017 when we made a 20 minute film that deals with the complex issues surrounding homelessness.

    More info

    We have cooked regularly with residents at the Longford Centre, a homeless prevention centre in Chorlton since 2018, with a variety of different funding sources.

    We shall be paying ex residents, who have subsequently moved on, to help teach others, as peer educators, in the new hostels. Endorsement from David Davies, Team Leader, Shared Housing Team, Children and Families Directorate at Manchester City Council.

    We shall shortly be putting out a huge call for unwanted cooking equipment in order to get more residents in hostels cooking.