Yahoo LifestyleThe best and worst school meals
To mark National School Meals Week, we asked some well-known chefs, cookery writers and business owners for their best and worst memories of school dinners.
Do you remember ice cream scoops of mashed potato and steak pie with gravy? They do.
Ice cream scoops of mashed potato
Arthur Potts Dawson, eco-friendly TV chef and restaurateur is probably best known to many of us for founding The People’s Supermarket and spending time on a commercial fishing trawler for the Big Fish Fight campaign. But as a child, what does he remember about school dinners?
“I was educated in the schools of London,” Arthur told us. “Unfortunately my fondest memories are of pink sponge and chocolate custard. The cold ice cream scoops of mashed potato and boiled cabbage didn’t really rattle my taste buds; in fact if I really think about it, school dinners were terrible.”
Fish and chips
James Ramsden, food writer, owner of the Secret Larder supper club and author of the book Small Adventures in Cooking, has mixed memories about his school dinners.
“I was at a boarding school in Scarborough where the food was generally pretty good,” he explained. “Saturday mornings there was always delicious porridge, and I remember particularly enjoying the chicken fricassee on Sundays.” James went on to say that the worst meal he remembers from school was fish and chips on Thursdays. “Odd, considering we were in Scarborough”, he adds, “but it was always hideous. I couldn’t say why now but I always dreaded it.”
[See also: Why should you buy British? Because Michel Roux Jr says so]
Steak pie and hot dogs
Justin Preston and David House, owners of the butchers’ shop Allens of Mayfair let us in on their school dinner memories. Justin told us that his favourite school dinner was steak pie: “As it was really good short crust pastry and the gravy would have soaked in as it had been made in the morning.” David said that the best days for school dinners for him were: “Tuesdays for hot dogs and Thursdays for fish fingers,” adding that the choice then was nothing like the healthy options given in schools now.
Shepherd’s pie
Bryn Williams, chef and owner of the restaurant Odette’s in Primrose Hill loved shepherd’s pie at school. A spokesperson for Bryn told us: “Shepherd’s pie was Bryn’s favourite school dinner because it was home cooked. He thought the dinner ladies that cooked it were like grandmothers and shepherd’s pie was always delicious on a cold winter’s day.”
We all remember shepherd’s pie at school, don’t we?
Ginger sponge and sweet white sauce
Master chocolatier Paul A. Young also told us about the school dinners he enjoyed while growing up in the North East.
“Surprisingly I really enjoyed my school meals in the North East mining village I grew up in, especially at my infant and junior school years. It was mid-seventies to early-eighties and school meals were still a little pre-war style but I loved the rare day when we had the treat of two hot dogs with buns, onions and ketchup, then a main course of wholesome meat and two veg instead of a dessert. Very strange I always thought but boy we were so excited when we sat down for lunch.”
But what about those school puddings? “One other thing I truly miss,”
Paul continued, “is ginger sponge and sweet white sauce. I really do
miss those traditional English desserts we had - and in huge portions
for us little ones.”
What are your favourite school dinner memories?
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