TV chef James Martin yesterday joined Amina Hanif of St Cadocs Primary in Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire, to give a healthy cooking lesson to pupils and parents.

Amina, 9, had won a Food Standards Agency Scotland competition to highlight the importance of reading food labels correctly to identify allergy risks.

Later, the chef urged education chiefs in Scotland to follow England's lead, and make practical cookery lessons compulsory. Ministers in England announced last month that secondary pupils will be taught cookery in a bid to combat obesity. Critics have complained the demise of domestic science in school left a generation unable to follow a recipe.

In Scotland, it is at the discretion of each council how much time is given to teaching youngsters how to cook.

Martin said: "If this initiative doesn't affect Scotland, then it should do. It is a wonderful decision, and it is one that chefs like myself have fought for years for. It is vital, especially in places such as Glasgow given its health history, that children are taught how to cook."