I’ve again spent some time in a school kitchen, shooting some truly great looking (and tasting) food and the ladies who lovingly prepare it. How things have moved on since I piled into the school dining hall for “burger, chips and beans please.”
chicken pitta pockets
Last week I was at Ringmer Community College, a secondary school of some 1,000 pupils located in very picturesque East Sussex. The kitchen has recently revamped its menu and wanted me to take some images so that the company who provides all this great food can properly showcase it.
vegetable noodles
People eat with their eyes – if the food doesn’t look good they won’t give it a try. And with many parents and pupils still believing that school lunches are pretty hideous (tasteless turkey twizzlers, soggy semolina etc.), it’s important for them to be able to visualise the reality.
fresh fruit salad
At Ringmer, there are no burger and chips meals. Just freshly prepared, well-balanced and great tasting fare. When I was in the kitchen, pupils could choose from noodles, Cumberland sausage, various pasta dishes, paninis, pitta filled with chicken fritters, pizza and sandwiches.
cumberland sausage
For dessert – chocolate and orange puddings, cookies, fresh fruit and yogurt.
orange cake
It’s all well-priced too (how do they make a profit?). So there’s really no excuse not to eat healthy food that tastes great (though I did see several teenage girls lunching solely on chocolate cookies.
cookies
Seems some things will never change…).So now they have the images. Let’s hope they can be used in a positive way to spread the real message about school meals.
serving school meals
There’s not much I miss about being a teenager but being able to turn back the clock and enjoy food like this is certainly one of them.
vegetable penne
I’d never ask for a burger again (unless it was homemade using the finest ground Aberdeen Angus steak and served with match-stick thin perfectly cooked French fries of course…).
