Children's cookery lessons: turn healthy food into child's play Desai demonstrated how to chop an onion finely, then Nancy had a turn. She wasn't crazy about using her hands to mix this with sausage meat and roll the meatballs, but she did as he asks. And this in itself is a good enough reason to kickstart our cooking together by going on a course: if I had asked her to do that at home she'd have refused. There was plenty of soap and water available to wash hands afterwards - and wash them Nancy did, removing sausage meat with the careful attention of Lady Macbeth. Next Desai demonstrated how to combine pasta flour with one whole egg and two additional yolks. I was a little disappointed that the flour (and all other ingredients) had already been measured out, but perhaps asking children to weigh everything might make the process impossibly slow. Nancy struggled initially to separate the yolks, breaking two of them before getting it right on the third try. She then moved on to learn about knives: the small one for vegetables, the slightly bendy one for filleting, a heavier knife for sturdier vegetables. With help from assistant tutor Sarah Haywood, Nancy quartered the fillets of lemon sole before dunking the pieces in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. She cheerfully lobbed the fish into the bowl of beaten egg, as if deliberately to make it splash. Boring but sensible, I urged her not to do the same when the battered fish went into the deep fat-fryer. When the fish turned golden brown, we sat down to eat it with a side salad and our home-made tartar sauce. I tred to arrange my plate to look beautiful, as in a high-end restaurant, while Nancy turned hers into a face, with tomatoes for eyes and lettuce for the nose. By the time we'd finished, it was time to transform the shapeless pasta dough into linguine. After Desai had clamped the mill to the worktop, Nancy cranked a handle to produce ever-thinner sheets, then a second handle to cut the sheets into, variously (and in order of fineness) fettucini, tagliatelle, spaghetti and linguini. At this point, when the cooking process most closely resembled playtime with play-dough, Nancy was at her happiest, pulling ecstatic faces as the hair-like strands were extruded from the machine. In fact she managed to sustain interest throughout the entire session: at four hours, one of the longest she'd ever endured. She was happy to push the meatballs around in the hot frying pan, to lob colourful diced veg in there too, and to sprinkle and garnish the olive oil, parmesan and shredded basil on the finished plate. As we sat down to eat the last of our creations - pancakes by me, in chocolate sauce by Nancy - she declared, unprompted, that the food tasted much nicer, "because I made it myself." By Alexander Thanki Bath/Bristol Lucknam Park Cookery School (01225 742777) Learn new skills creating a healthy starter, main course and dessert on a half-day cookery course for adult and child (aged six to 10). £75 per person. The next children's cookery course is in February. Bordeaux Quay (0117 9431200) Prepare two courses and bake a loaf of bread with your child at this award-winning Bristol restaurant and cookery school. 2:00pm to 4:30pm, £70. Next classes for children are December 17, 18 and 20. Edinburgh Edinburgh New Town Cookery School (0131 226 4314) Cook a simple lunch together, and treats to take home. 10.30am to 3pm. £130. Next classes December 19, 20 and 23. Devon Manna From Devon Cooking School (01803 752943) This school offers a selection of family workshops in the intimate and convivial surroundings of a small B&B overlooking the River Dart. North Yorkshire One of North Yorkshire's most highly acclaimed hotels offers parent and child cookery day courses at numerous dates during the year. £175 Billingsgate Seafood School (020 7517 3548) Learn how to prepare various fresh fish and shellfish in the environs of the famous Docklands fish market. Some dishes are enjoyed with drinks for lunch, some taken home. 9:30am to 2:00pm approx, £120 Cafe Caldesi (020 7487 0753) Children cook a two-course meal at London's only Italian cookery school, in Marylebone. 10.30 to 1pm. £45 - bookings available for January 2014 Oxfordshire Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons (0184 427 8881) Full-day courses at Raymond Blanc's Oxfordshire restaurant and hotel, some with the man himself. Tea and informal lunch included.