Ce que « Savoir cuisiner » signifie pour des adolescents québécois

Context: The loss of cooking skills by young people is a hot topic these days and includes elaborate concepts that allow us to explore the theme of cooking in all of it’s complexity (Vidgen, 2016). Although the current scientific data does not allow us to say with complete certainty that there is a loss of cooking skills in the young people of Quebec, we know that they have less occasions to acquire these competencies in their school and home environments (Chenhall, 2010). The program « Brigades Culinaires » that is deployed as an extracurricular activity by the « Tablée des chefs » is one of Quebec’s initiatives to address this problem.  Objectives: This study explores the meaning given to the act of cooking by the participants of the « Brigades Culinaires » and follows their evolution throughout the course of a school year.  Methodology The teenagers who participated in the « Brigades Culinaires »’s 2017-2018 workshops were invited to answer a self-administrated questionnaire before and after the workshops, at the beginning and the end of the school year. This questionnaire included the open question «What does it mean for you to know how to cook? » and included 11 quantitative statements based on Vidgen and Gallegos’ theoretical model (2014). This model implies that food literacy is based on four competencies linked to the planning, selection, preparation and consumption of food.  The multiple choice answers proposed were «capable», «more or less capable» and «incapable». Sociodemographic questions were also included. A coding grid specific to Quebec teenagers exposed to the « Brigades Culinaires » was used to analyze the qualitative data. Frequency tables were generated and chi-square tests were conducted to raise significant differences between some variables.  Results: The majority of respondents were girls and the mean age was 13.4 years old (ET :1.5). Before the start of the workshops, 1437 answers to the question on the act of cooking were analyzed. After the workshops, 840 answers were obtained (13.8 ET :1.5). In order of importance, the teenagers associated the expression knowing how to cook to the preparation of food, 65% before the workshops and 57% after. The preparation of food refers to the applied aspect of the act of cooking: the use of equipment and culinary techniques. Also, 32% of the answers referring to the consumption of food before the workshops and 40% of the answers after the workshops included the comprehension of wholesome nutrition and underlined the importance of autonomy. Very few answers were associated with the planning and the selection of food. Quantitatively, in both answers pre and post workshops, the preparation seemed to be an activity that was well mastered by the teenagers whereas the statements related to the planning and the selection showed lower scores to the «capable» answer choice. Conclusion: Even though preparation is an essential skill to develop for healthy eating, it must be supported by a whole other set of competencies and knowledge in nutrition. Therefore, in a continuous improvement perspective, we must focus on teaching the provenance of food, the functioning of the food system, the keeping of a food budget and time management. These are avenues of skill development to retain so that the meaning of the word cooking is richer and the competencies necessary for healthy eating are retained for a lifetime. This global vision of the act of cooking will permit us to refine culinary programs which will allow children to develop a maximum of autonomy in the kitchen and distance themselves from ultra-processed products.

Keyphrases: Food literacy, Cooking, Cooking skills, Food skills, Teenagers, Culinary workshops, Eating habits, Culinary program