Charity Chefs in Schools has developed a free toolkit to help schools create their own food education hub. Funded by Clarion Housing Group’s William Sutton Prize, it covers everything from starting small scale projects such as vegetable beds and firepits to state-of-the-art cookery classrooms. There’s also information about fundraising and crowdfunding the project.

The toolkit pulls together the knowledge and experience gathered during the creation of the Hackney School of Food in London, established by the LEAP Federation of Schools (Gayhurst Community School, Mandeville Primary and Kingsmead Primary) in partnership with Chefs in Schools. The school has been described as a cooking classroom with vegetable gardens, orchards, beehives and chickens.

Nicole Pisani, co-founder and executive chef at Chefs in Schools, says

Nicole Pisani, co-founder and executive chef at Chefs in Schools, says “We need to see a network of food education hubs in schools. Food education is a positive approach to improving child health. It’s how we can instil a love of fresh food and varied diets. We’ve seen children reluctant to try different vegetables, but will eat them raw once they’ve helped grow or cook them.”

The toolkit can be applied to any size of project. “If the school only has a corner of a playground available for planting vegetables, it has advice for that. If there is a site for a cooking classroom, it explains all the steps needed to create it,” she says.

Nicole and Louise Nichols, executive head of LEAP Federation of Schools dreamt up the concept for Hackney School of Food on a wet day while stuck in a car. Nicole says, “We were looking at the empty building on the edge of the school site and Louise said, ‘What could we do with that space for food education?’ The discussion took shape and it grew from there.”

Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of Chefs in Schools came on board with some ideas

Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of Chefs in Schools came on board with some ideas. Surman Weston, the architects, joined the project and it started to take shape. Lidka D’Agostino, head gardener, started work on the orchard, vegetable gardens and raised beds. Beehives, chicken coops and a wood fired pizza oven soon followed.

Tom Walker, Lead Food Educator at the school runs a pizza class where children make and sell pizzas to the public. Tom and Lidka work with ‘Wild Farmed’ to grow wheat on site which means children can harvest their own flour. Students help plant seeds, weed the vegetable patches, pick the produce and turn it into a meal. “Or they can bake bread, make pasta, feed chickens, learn about bees and the seasons. All of which sparks their creativity and interest in food,” adds Nicole.

Nicole says “A food education hub puts food education at the heart of a school and it becomes a source of pride and a passion project for staff and families. Ultimately, it’s children who benefit most. We’ve seen first-hand how, if you deliver great food education, children will try a varied diet. It teaches them not only skills, but also teaches them to love a variety of foods.”

Supporting Success in Education Catering

Get the latest School and Education Catering News, along with helpful tips to support positive behaviour and student achievement

The post Inspiring a Movement: Establishing Your Own Food Education Hub appeared first on Stir it up Magazine.

Nicole Pisani, co-founder and Executive Chef, says

Nicole Pisani, co-founder and Executive Chef, says “Currently there is no qualification for school chefs even though they are responsible for feeding hundreds of children a day. This will become the standard school chef qualification and provide the foundation for training school cooks and chefs.”

Called the School Chef Educator Qualification, the pilot scheme, which took place in December 2021 and January this year, was funded by Urban Health. Nicole says “We are reviewing the pilot scheme and seeing how best we can offer the course nation-wide.

The course covers School Food Standards – what they are and how to apply them, computer literacy, nutrition, portion control, how to have a varied meal and how to reduce food waste in the kitchen and dining room. Health and safety, food safety, allergens, food display and food education are also included. Participants undertake 80% of the modules via online tutorials learning and 20% in person. “We think it’s time school chef training is brought into the digital age. The advantage of this is that students can complete lesson materials at a time convenient to them,” comments Nicole

The course also includes a module on how to create a happy team. Nicole says “School chefs and cooks are under enormous pressure feeding hundreds of children in a short period of time, so it’s important they learn how they can keep their equilibrium and remain happy.”

Participants for the course must be nominated by their school or contract caterer and those who successfully complete the course will receive the School Chef Educator certificate.

Operating in tandem with the new qualification is a drive to address the deficit of chefs in the industry with a series of apprenticeships for school leavers. “We need to enhance the role of the school chef and show what career opportunities are available,” says Nicole. “When we get enquiries from chefs, the first step is to arrange for them to spend a day in one of our schools so they can see whether it’s for them.”

Supporting Success in Education Catering

Get the latest School and Education Catering News, along with helpful tips to support positive behaviour and student achievement

The post Ground-breaking New Qualification Launched for School Chefs appeared first on Stir it up Magazine.

School and higher education catering has undergone huge change over the last 15 years, with programs such as the Government’s 20% less meat being introduced, calls for continued funding and support for school meals during lockdown and even Jamie Oliver’s campaign which started back in 2005 has been rejuvenated to encompass child health as well as school dinners.

As the new school term approaches, we take a closer look at how school catering teams can continue to develop methods that support children and young adults to make healthier choices at mealtimes.

Meeting the Challenges Head-On

Catering for different age groups in schools is undoubtedly challenging, developing menus that are nutritious, provide variety and accommodate a multitude of dietary requirements on a budget requires skill and tenacity.

“The biggest challenge for school caterers when it comes to healthy eating is that pupils don’t really like eating vegetables. Through Tilda’s support of Veg Power’s ‘Eat Them to Defeat Them’ campaign we know 80% of children don’t eat enough and 50% of parents have given up trying to get their kids to eat 5 a day!” says Annette Coggings, Head of Foodservice, Tilda UK “Over the summer Tilda worked with a number of Welsh LEA’s, as well as Hampshire County Council Catering Services (HC3S) to host weekly cook along sessions with pupils using Tilda Brown & White rice with a vegetable that needed to be defeated. Through the campaign we hope it will inspire pupils to eat more veg, but also spur on school caterers to get creative with their menus.”

Linking the dining hall with education is an important element of implementing change. Chefs in Schools is an organisation combining the skills of chefs and teachers to transform food, food culture and food education in schools. Nicole Pisani, the founder of Chefs in Schools is dedicated to teaching children all about the food they are eating, promoting lifelong healthy choices by undertaking activities such as cooking classes in the kitchen, talking to students about nutrition and healthy eating during their science lessons and providing vegetables for children to draw in art class.

“I was in a school in Stretham, its a primary and secondary school and over the lockdown period, we decided we wanted to set up a Koji lab in the school kitchen. It links to education and it is taking the education of food up a level, many restaurants don’t have Koji labs, let alone a school! But the importance is the education, making food accessible and interesting to the kids.” Comments Nicole. “The kids come in and they see the mould growing on rice and then we show them the process of making soy sauce, which most kids love. It works because they are coming into the kitchen, they’re seeing something that isn’t ordinary and they’re getting excited. They’re going to tell their friends and they’re excited about lunch.”

Nicole believes that school gardens are fundamentally important to encouraging healthy eating. “The kids, they just love getting their hands in the soil. They love pulling out veg and its guaranteed that if they pull out a carrot, they’re going to eat it two minutes later. They’re eating raw beetroot, they’re eating sorrel because it’s not forced,” says Nicole. “There is a primary school we work with and they get vegetables and they hide them in the soil and then they tell the kids, ‘go and find a beetroot’ the pupils start pulling out vegetables and getting so excited.

“It is easier to encourage Primary school children to eat more healthily but with secondary school children you hear them complaining in the corridor about eating spinach!” continues Nicole, “We’re in five secondary schools at the moment and we’ve learned that linking the food we serve to the food tech department by asking the teacher what they are teaching that semester has a real impact. For example, if they are teaching about sugar, we can then make sure that when they come into the dining hall, there is a cake made with 50% apples, 20% pears and 10% honey to show them the natural sugars versus processed white sugar.”

Education however should not solely be aimed at the pupils, staff in school kitchens have long been left without specific training qualifications for the sector. The team at Chefs in Schools are currently writing a qualification which introduces nutrition for children, menu writing, portion sizes and training on how to get children excited about food. “One of the biggest problems we are witnessing is portion sizes. It’s not necessarily what we’re actually eating, it’s the amount that we’re eating. The amount that gets put on the plate is too big even for an adult sometimes, but nobody has been trained on it!” comments Nicole.

Making Healthy More Appealing

Whether they know the importance of eating healthily or not, encouraging children to select a healthy school meal requires tapping into a bit of child psychology and a touch of trial and error. “When schools tackle dinners by saying ‘this is what you have to eat because it’s healthy’, they’re encouraging the exact opposite behaviour.” Says Nicole Pisani “In one school, when we swapped Heinz ketchup with homemade ketchup, we had a protest! They were literally in tears, saying ‘why would you
do this to us? Who are you? Why would you take away the most important thing we know and love?’ There is a fine balance between treating students as adults, letting them make their own decisions and giving them a little bit of guidance in a way that’s not force-fed.”

Rather than removing all familiar and popular options completely, consider using no added sugar, low fat options from the same brands. Heinz have developed a range dedicated for schools including 50% less sugar and salt ketchup, light mayonnaise and no added sugar baked beans. James Birch, Business Development Chef, Away From Home, Unilever suggests supplementing this with slight changes to much loved dishes, reducing the meat content and increasing the quantity of vegetables and pulses “When making a classic like a cottage pie, elevate it with extra roasted root vegetables and lentils instead of beef mince. Roasting your vegetables gives great textures, those umami flavour notes associated with meat dishes and intensifies the natural sweetness. Lentils are a great source of fibre, protein and low in fat.”

It is also well-known that we eat with our eyes, so consider how food is displayed, is it connecting with every one of our 6 senses? “Look at the layout, design and language used on menus and use descriptive words to draw attention to dishes such as crisp summer salad or zesty salmon fillet” suggests Ruth O’Sullivan, UK and Ireland Nutritionist, Unilever.

Addressing topical issues with menu solutions or building trust by communicating how the kitchen is contributing to improving the environment is another way to encourage healthy eating. Linking social trends such as meat free Mondays with environmental change taps into what’s important to students, giving them options which positively impact the issues they are passionate about without having to promote the dish as a healthy option.

The days of the Turkey Twizzler may be behind us, but it is clear there is still a lot to be done. The good news is that children are more interested in their food than ever before. Meeting this curiosity with exciting, delicious meals and building strong connections between the kitchen, teaching staff and curriculum will contribute to the ongoing journey of raising the standards of school meals across the sector, reducing childhood obesity and giving children the best possible foundation for the rest of their lives.

Supporting Success in Education Catering

Get the latest School and Education Catering News, along with helpful tips to support positive behaviour and student achievement

The post Health by Stealth appeared first on Stir it up Magazine.

Currently, Chefs in Schools works with 80 schools in London and plans to expand into other areas
of the country.

Nicole Pisani, co-founder and Executive Chef says

Nicole Pisani, co-founder and Executive Chef says “We believe school food is vitally important to a child’s education. Our mission is to encourage and enable schools across the country to serve great, creative school food that doesn’t just fill them up, but feeds their imagination too. Any school can
use our service. They tell us what their vision is and we’ll help them achieve it, whether it’s having
a farm or alfresco eating.”

Nicole sees the dining room as an extension of the classroom. “It’s all about getting children excited about food and making sure they are encouraged to try different ingredients. You need to put children at the centre. Their experience of food at school sets them up for life. If a child is carrying a tray with their main meal and dessert and can’t carry it properly, the ice cream may slip into the peas and this makes them cry. It might put them off ice cream or peas for life.”

In 2014, Nicole hit the headlines when she took over the school kitchen at Gayhurst Community School in London’s Hackney. Prior to this, she was head chef at the acclaimed Nopi restaurant in London. While writing the School Food Plan with a colleague, Henry Dimbleby (a governor at his children’s state primary Gayhurst Community School) posted a tweet asking if anyone would be interested in taking over the school kitchen. “I decided to apply as my body was telling me to slow down,” she says. “I didn’t know about school meals as I was brought up in Malta and we used to go home for lunch.”

From her first day at Gayhurst, Nicole realised how meaningful and rewarding it was to work in a school “and that I was making a difference. I wanted to serve food that was made with love and from scratch and that everyone would want to eat. I also had a better work/life balance.”

Her first job was to retrain the school cooks using the restaurant brigade system, so sections were introduced and job descriptions were changed into head chef, sous chef, chefs di parti, kitchen porter and so on.

“Staff who came into the kitchen to serve the food felt disconnected, so we all started prepping and serving together so they would feel part of the team,” she says.

Gayhurst Community School became the model for Chefs In Schools, formed by Henry Dimbleby, Nicole Pisani and Louise Nichols, executive head teacher of the Leap Federation of Schools, which includes Gayhurst. It is backed by some of the country’s leading food influencers such as Prue Leith and Yotam Ottolenghi.

In a collaboration between Chefs in Schools and Gayhurst, Nicole and Louise set up Hackney School of Food. Nicole says “The concept is that a child can pull up a carrot from the school’s gardens, cook and eat it on the same day.” Described as a “field to fork” cooking school, it trains school chefs and offers food education to children and communities in Hackney.

www.chefsinschool.org.uk

Supporting Success in Education Catering

Get the latest School and Education Catering News, along with helpful tips to support positive behaviour and student achievement

The post Chefs in Schools appeared first on Stir it up Magazine.

A high-powered career in restaurants beckoned but then she gave it up to work in the kitchen of a Hackney primary school, after reading a tweet from Leon founder and school meals campaigner Henry Dimbleby. She also runs a charity, Chefs in Schools, which aims to appeal to those in the restaurant industry who are looking for a career change.

How do you think the general public perceive school meals?

How has this changed over the last decade? I think after the Jamie Oliver revolution, people have started to talk about how we can serve better food in school. There is still a huge hype around chefs entering schools and helping school education. School meals still have a mixed reaction – it just depends on the person in the school cooking the meals. ‘Better is possible’ but you’re only going to have bread made from scratch if the person in the kitchen loves cooking.

Should packed lunches be banned from schools?

Yes. All children should have a hot nutritious meal and they should eat together. We need a link between education and the dining hall. For example, the children can make gyozas in cooking lesson then eat them the next day for lunch. These steps can change the way children eat and approach food.

How can secondary schools compete with the High Street and keep pupils on campus at lunchtime?

I work in two secondary schools and this is exactly what we’re tackling. We don’t say this is healthy food for you but we do tell them it’s cooking from scratch. Street food influences are really important and the thing we sell the most is a jerk chicken burger with no mayo just crispy skin and skinny slaw served in a brioche bun. We try to give them a healthy version of their favourite dishes, such as pizza but with a sourdough base. We try to make the link to awareness of why are we eating this food and why is it better for us – but not forcing it.

What prompted you to give up a successful career at a top London restaurant to work in a school kitchen?

It was originally purely out of needing more balance in my life and less hours. As soon as I had my first day I realised it was a really good option for anyone who wants to take forward the knowledge that they have and teach kids and kitchen staff. Making a difference is so rewarding. That feeling of giving something not just paying the bills, feels really good.

How has your restaurant training impacted on the way you run your school kitchens?

I use a kitchen brigade system, putting my teams in chef jackets and giving them sections. It’s about understanding kitchen etiquette and trying to bridge the school kitchen to be more managed and organised. I also give my teams different job titles – head chef, sous, kitchen porter, chef de partie – rather than “school cook”. Acting more as a team makes them feel the kitchen is an important part of the school. A lot of school ktchens feel like they have a separate identity – but we are part of the bigger picture.

Following the School Food Plan, are schools finally getting it right?

Hopefully yes! I guess a lot of schools have different models and we’re trying to show that what we’re doing works. If we all come together we’ve got a chance to change the fundamental things that children think about food. We’re giving it all we can and throwing everything we can at it.

In your opinion, should all school pupils receive free school meals?

Yes. The Borough of Islington offers free school meals to all children in primary schools, not just those in reception to Year 2. It’s important for their education and children learn better if they have eaten well. For some children it can be the only hot meal that they get. It gives them the energy to continue their learning and concentrate in class.

You also run the cooking curriculum at your schools. Tell us about that.

We realised that if children get excited about different produce, such as shellfish, and are able to smell and taste and touch it, they push back a lot less. So we get them excited about food by growing mushrooms in the classroom and going out foraging. We’ve butchered chickens and cooked over fire. The excitement for our lessons is crazy!
We’re  astounded by how much they can actually get done.

What single piece of advice can you offer a school which is looking to improve its lunch offering?

Get in touch with Chefs In Schools! We’re currently launching a “Road Map Program” where we go into schools and do a small audit to come up with ways schools on small budgets can improve their school meals.

How is ‘Chefs in Schools’ helping to turn the tide?

This year alone we have recruited six really good chefs from industry to go into schools and share their knowledge with children. They’re all London-based but we are slowly trying to work out how we can branch out. We have lots of schools getting in touch and where we can we cluster them together.

What would you say to a restaurant chef who is considering making the move into education catering?

It’s perfect for feeling that you’re doing something with the skills you’ve learned throughout your career. We’re always trying to find good chefs to go into schools so get in touch!

And now for three questions that we ask all of our Leading Lights

1. What are your three kitchen secrets?

i) Use quite a lot of butter to make food taste good.

ii) I can’t live without sharp knives

iii) We always serve vegetables as well as ‘sneaking’ them in.

2. What is your favourite ingredient and why?

Currently it’s horseradish. It has a kick and if you grate a little bit of it on meat, fish or vegetables like cauliflower, it makes it taste amazing.

3. Please could you share your favourite recipe, along with your reasons for choosing it?

Edible gardens! We serve these occasionally at Gayhurst – the children love pulling the vegetables out of the soil and it’s a real talking point.

The post Leading Lights – Nicole Pisani appeared first on Stir it up Magazine.

Earlier this year the Prue Leith-backed ‘Chefs in Schools’ charity made national headlines for luring the UK’s best chefs to schools – with three schools in London taking on chefs from high-end eateries Dabbous and the Riding House Café. 

The charity was set up by Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of the healthy fast-food chain Leon, who hit on the idea after Nicole Pisani, the chef from Ottolenghi’s Soho restaurant NOPI, started working at his children’s primary school. 

Mr Dimbleby says of the initiative which aims to put 100 chefs in 100 schools by 2023: 

“A job as a school cook appeals to restaurant chefs who are sick of working 100-hour weeks at unsociable hours. 

He adds: “Eating in school should be a pleasurable experience: time spent sharing good food with peers and teachers.” 

For more information visit www.chefsinschools.org.uk. 

Case Study 

Chef Mark Wilkinson is part of a pioneering new generation of school caterers who are turning their backs on top-class restaurants to cook for kids. 

Three months ago Mark took the plunge from the 80-hour weeks he worked at Michelin-starred restaurants and prize-winning gastro pubs to a head up a small school kitchen in the picturesque Ribble Valley. 

Reclaiming his work/life balance, dad-of-three Mark now hones his considerable skills at Oakhill School and Nursery in Whalley, where the age of diners ranges from three months to 16 years. 

Mark’s own impressive resumé includes working alongside Francis Coulson at the Michelin-starred Sharrow Bay Hotel on Ullswater in the Lake District. 

A Country Range customer, Mark’s first day is one he won’t forget in a hurry: “It was half-term holidays, so school was closed and the fridge was empty! However, I still had 60 nursery children to feed – lunch and tea. I thought what have I walked into?” 

No school slop for Project Scot

A similar project called Chefs@School (www.chefsatschool.org/) has been running for the past five years in Scotland, with the government’s backing. 

Administered by Scottish chefs, its aim is to encourage culinary and food industry professionals to work with teachers and children across Scotland and bring food education to life. 

“The organisation currently provides food education to over 30,000 children,” says chef Marie-Clare James, the project’s co-ordinator. 

The programme has delivered hands-on cooking experiences since September 2013 and links volunteer chefs with their local schools to showcase cooking skills and to help children understand more about their food and where it comes from. 

Adds Marie-Clare: “We work with young people aged 3-18 years old in a school environment where we aim to deliver hands-on cooking experiences to educate and inspire young people about their food

Supporting Success in Education Catering

Get the latest School and Education Catering News, along with helpful tips to support positive behaviour and student achievement

The post Restaurant chefs are cool for school appeared first on Stir it up Magazine.