Step one: learn the basics

Cooking schools are booming as homemakers try to slash their food bills during the recession.

Auckland's Main Course has increased class numbers and some classes have waiting lists.

Owner Alison Roberts said the number of people wanting to enrol in the Complete Basic Skills Course has "gone through the roof".

She said people wanted to save money on their grocery bill by learning to cook, or brushing up on existing skills.

Community education cooking courses at Northcote College are also in hot demand.

Chef Frances Kluge was tutoring four classes a year when she started the courses five years ago. Now she's running eight, in everything from cafe-style food to easy dinner parties.

Changing shopping habits at supermarkets support the idea of a boom in home cooking.

Bill Moore, spokesman for Progressive Enterprises, owner of the Countdown, Foodtown and Woolworths chains, said sales of cheaper meats such as bacon hocks and chuck steak, were rising.

But not everyone is making meals from scratch. Rival supermarket company Foodstuffs, owner of New World, Pak 'N Save and Four Square, has noticed a rise in frozen fish products, pre-prepared lasagne and crumbed schnitzel.

Frank Newman, co-author of budgeting book How to Live off the Smell of an Oily Rag, said buying processed food and ready-made meals would not necessarily save money.

"With processed food you've got to pay for the processing."

He recommended cutting the family food bill by buying "core ingredients" such as mince, rice, grains, fruit and vegetables.

Nutritionist Sarah Hanrahan said convenience foods were time-savers but often had high salt and fat contents. They should not be eaten too often, and were best accompanied with fresh vegetables or a salad.

Sports nutritionist Sarah Burkhart recommended planning a menu to put more healthy food on the table, and looking at less expensive cuts of meat and chicken.

Freelance chef and Herald on Sunday food writer Paul Jobin recommends cuts of meat that are not premium quality but still tasty, particularly if braised or cooked slowly in a crockpot.

Jobin teaches cooking classes around New Zealand and is amazed by the number of students who can't cook pasta or poach an egg. He blamed the demise of cooking skills on the rise of convenience foods, or parents not teaching children to cook.

Meals for less

Shopping trends in the past four months:

* Chuck steak: steady increase in sales

* Hamburger patties, fish fingers, pasta sauce, curry sauce: significant increases in sales.

* Mince and pre-cooked sausages: steady increase in sales.

Source: Foodstuffs and Progressive Enterprises and Foodstuffs