Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design a culinary education program and ascertain its impact on knowledge, phobias, culinary skills and diet quality in schoolchildren. Design/methodology/approach Repeated measures design to determine changes after the implementation of the culinary education program in a pre-school and primary school located in a Madrid (Spain) neighborhood with a low socioeconomic level. A total of 58 children agreed to participate in the program and 40 parents authorized the evaluation of the effect of the program. Variables were measured with Student’s t-test or Wilcoxon-signed range test for quantitative variables. Effect size was calculated by Cohen’s d. Findings The mean scores in knowledge and beliefs improved from 5.0 to 7.8 (P < 0.001; Cohen’s d = 1), the mean value obtained in the food phobias test decreased from 24.6 to 20.7 (P = 0.01; Cohen’s d = 0.53), diet quality on Kid Med Test score increased from 7.4 to 8.2 (P = 0.06; Cohen’s d = 0.38), and the children improved their culinary skills from 21.2 to 27.9 (P < 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.66). Research limitations/implications Self-declared data could lead to information biases. Other limitations were the lack of control group and a scarce statistical power that could explain the absence of statistical significance in the results on diet quality. To observe the effects of this change on eating habits, long-term evaluations would have to be carried out. Originality/value The brand-new culinary education program had a positive effect on children’s knowledge of nutrition and culinary skills as well as reducing food phobias. This proposal is beyond the state-of-the-art and could be implemented elsewhere with a robust effect on children, parents and educators.