Head Chef Michelle Sargent makes sure that the food our children eat is nutritious and responsibly sourced. She shares the school’s ethos as well as her own personal goals for school meals.
Over the last year, our head chef, Michelle, has made many positive changes to our menus and provision, with the aim of creating more choice and ensuring each meal is nutrient-dense, to sustain the children and help them learn. Over 90% of the food served by our kitchens is cooked from scratch on site and our chef’s overarching ethos is to create a food education where children have many healthy, balanced choices from which to create each meal.
As a school, we see mealtimes as a chance to sit together and catch up. At lunchtime in the Pre-Prep, form teachers sit with their class, much like a family might, and they serve and share the day’s meal from a platter. In the Prep School, children and teachers (in fact all staff) go to the kitchen to select their meal and then sit down together on tables to eat and converse. Kitchen staff help the children create a balanced plate of food from all the food groups, and teaching staff sitting with the children keep an eye on how much pupils are eating and encourage them to drink too.
The chef’s ethos of providing a wide range of healthy and nutritious food shows at every meal. At lunchtime, there is a vegetarian, meat and fish option, plus vegetables and potatoes, rice or pasta as you might imagine. In addition, there are sweet and plain baked potatoes and an extensive salad bar. Breakfast includes a homemade nut-free muesli, as well as a ‘create your own’ breakfast bar with oats, various seeds, yoghurts, fresh fruit and frozen fruit.
One of the most popular dishes we serve is spaghetti bolognaise – perhaps unsurprisingly as it is family classic. Our bolognaise, like all our served dishes, is packed full of nutrients thanks to lentils, fresh herbs, grated courgette and carrots, which have all been cooked into a rich and delicious sauce. Michelle has reviewed every recipe and uses this same technique to ensure that each one is as nutritious as possible.
Michelle has rethought the salad bar and it now includes at least four handmade salads each day, raw salads such as edamame beans and peas in a mint vinaigrette, at least three protein choices such as boiled eggs, cheese and tuna, salad toppers like pumpkin seeds, as well as a choice of dressings.
Puddings also get the special treatment. Our traditional school puddings – such as spotted dog - are all handmade by our pastry and pudding expert Stewart. There is an additional choice of low-sugar yoghurts which are made on site from a base of Greek yoghurt, as well as platters of fresh fruit and whole fruit. The yoghurts have proved to be particularly popular.
Michelle was keen to point out that all our food is Red Tractor, which means it is traceable and safe. We also buy locally where we can and have daily deliveries from a local butcher, baker and fruit and dairy supplier. Michelle only buys pollock when serving white fish because it is sustainable.
If you haven’t experienced it already, our match teas are wonderfully traditional. Parents and visitors enjoy a spread of afternoon sandwiches, freshly brewed tea and coffee as well as an assortment of Stuart’s homemade cakes. The sandwich fillings will have been freshly made that morning too, such as poached chicken and bacon.
The children’s match tea is carbohydrate and protein-loaded to replenish young bodies and improve recovery.
I’m really proud of what I have achieved over a year. I looked at the recipes when I arrived and they were good, and yet I could see that we needed to add more nutritional elements to create the maximum benefit for the children. Now we offer many choices which means there is a healthy choice for everyone, even if they don’t like the main courses served. I am lucky to have a very good team who have understood why I have made changes and embraced the ethos whole-heartedly.
Michelle Sargent
