The single-decker is actually a brightly-painted articulated lorry which, once parked in school grounds, can be opened out into a spectacular kitchen and classroom.

And it is equipped with everything its highly-qualified teachers need to educate youngsters about quality cooking, the importance of the right diet, nutrition, food preparation, food safety and hygiene.

Top of the menu for the youngsters of Sacred Heart Primary School, in Bretton, Peterborough, yesterday were cheesy vegetable parcels and butternut basil bread.

But in the next few days, they will also be taught to create such mouth-watering delicacies as jumping bean couscous salad, smoked paprika sausage hotpot, and even buffalo mozzarella and beef tomato salad.

They were being served up by pupils, staff and parents as part of a national programme to encourage communities to develop their cooking skills and use locally sourced produce.

The young chefs also got the chance to use a range of organic vegetables which had been grown by pupils in the school garden to create many of the dishes.

The cooking bus will be at the school until Thursday.

The school is one of seven across the east of England chosen for the Food for Life programme, which is a Lottery-funded partnership to encourage communities to access seasonal, local and organic food and the skills they need to cook and grow fresh food.

And it is the first school in the region to use the cooking bus as part of the Food for Life programme.

Business manager at the school Allison Baverstock said: "The cooking bus is a fantastic idea and a way that we can encourage the community to develop its cooking skills.

"We actively encourage pupils at the school to eat healthily and also to use locally sourced seasonal, local and organic food wherever possible.

"I hope we can encourage more people in the community to do the same when they visit the cooking bus this week."

Cooking bus programme co-ordinator Joanne Johnstone said: "With increasing concern over rising childhood obesity and the future well-being of our children, this campaign is a vital ingredient in helping to give children full control over what they eat."