Harpenden nutritionist wins world renowned award for book

Harpenden local Katharine Tate, otherwise known as The Food Teacher, bagged the Best in the World Award in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for co-authoring the bestseller Now We’re Cooking! Delivering the National Curriculum through Food.

Her co-authors were headteacher Tim Baker and teacher Marie Reynolds, who both work at Charlton Manor Primary School in London.

The book provides exemplary food lessons to teach a variety of subjects - as practiced at Charlton Manor.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who is a previous recipient of the award, wrote a foreword for the text.

Katharine said: “For our book to have won from over 26,000 food and wine books produced each year is a huge achievement.

“As The Food Teacher I encourage children and families to think about what they eat and to embrace a healthy lifestyle. When writing Now We’re Cooking! we set out to use our expertise to support schools to put food at the top of their agendas.

“The impact of developing school food culture can have wide reaching benefits including greater engagement, improved long-term health and community inclusion.

“To get this level of recognition for this book is an amazing achievement.”

She said the awards are often described as the Oscars of food awards.

They took place in the Yantai region of China, have been running for 23 years, and received entries from 215 countries and regions.

Now We’re Cooking! is Katherine’s third book - she also won a Gourmand Award for No Kitchen Cookery for Primary Schools.

She has also launched the national Young Chef Award, conducted a series of community talks and demonstrations, and become increasingly popular on social media.

The Food Teacher has more than 1,500 followers on Twitter and 15,000 likes on Facebook. Katherine will discuss another of her books, Eat Your Way Through the Menopause, at The Cricketers of Redbourn on June 14. Tickets are £35 from www.thefoodteacher.co.uk/shop/supper-club/