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David Daniels thinks children don’t pick the best school meals, so he chooses for them.
TERI PENGILLEY
Children sit in ‘family groups’ at lunchtime at The Petchey Academy in London, and teachers eat with the pupils
It’s 1pm at The Petchey Academy in Hackney, north London, and the serving hatches clatter open, revealing rows of grey trays, each one offering exactly the same food as every other tray.
There is only one dish of the day. Today, it is beef stew and mixed vegetables, followed by marmalade sponge and custard. In an age where the words “choice” and “personalisation” have become almost obligatory in schools, this comprehensive school makes a thing of offering no choice at the lunch table, apart from halal and vegetarian versions of the same stew.
“They do actually have a choice,” says the academy’s food operations manager John Liversidge with a smirk. “They can take it or leave it!”
This may be a joke, but this former restaurateur, who has been at this school since it opened four years ago, works tirelessly, using every trick of culinary creativity and deception, to encourage the 700 pupils to enjoy all his creations.
Today, he has concealed diced pieces of celery, parsnips and onions in the stew, to ensure that the pupils at least eat some vegetables even if they don’t choose to take a spoonful of the uncamouflaged carrots, potatoes and leeks. It proves a wise tactic as, on many tables, the vegetables go almost untouched and end up in the black plastic bins….Continue reading
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