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http://www.easypizza.co.uk
Posted by stellios
on the 8-Mar-05 at 17:57:31

http://www.easypizza.co.uk

making a meal out of school dinners
Jamie Oliver’s campaign for better grub for schoolkids promotes modern prejudices about food.

by Rob Lyons

Having converted some London urchins into talented chefs for his restaurant Fifteen, mockney geezer Jamie Oliver is now aiming to make school dinners nutritious.

And, of course, there's a TV series to accompany the attempt. Jamie's School Dinners follows the Naked Chef as he tries to produce a decent repast with a food budget of roughly 37p per child (1). Not a simple task.

Episode one, broadcast on 23 February, highlighted the current state of school canteen fare. The cooks at Kidbrooke School in Greenwich didn't so much lovingly prepare food as open boxes of it. Frozen chips, grey frozen disks (burgers apparently), and frozen fish fingers made from reconstituted white fish mince, were dumped into metal trays and cooked in ovens.

The kids, being kids, lapped it up. Most of them ate burger and chips, or stodgy pizza and chips, most days of the week. Jamie was appalled. But it soon became clear that he didn't have the first clue about mass catering, a point brought home to him by head cook Nora, half battleaxe, half naughty schoolgirl, who was a good deal more sensible and entertaining than the celeb chef.

Nora and Jamie both cook food, but they operate in parallel universes. While Nora had a nervous but entertaining day at Fifteen, learning how to chop food properly, Jamie fell flat on his face in the school kitchen. His food took too long to cook, the kids turned their noses up at it (or picked the vegetables out), and it was three times too expensive. Even the ever-chipper Oliver started to get pissed off.

Improving school dinners would be a good thing. Since the Tories started to cut back on the provision of school dinners in the 1980s, budgets and staffing have fallen, and catering companies have been reduced to providing lowest common denominator meals. They may not be adventurous or particularly nutritious, but at least the kids eat them.

But something else is going on, too: the dumbing down of eating. Rather than force children to try new things on the basis that we adults know what's good for them, kids are left to choose what they want. Inevitably, they go for the salt, sugar and fat every time. Some balance has to be struck between training taste buds - which is why 'eat your greens' is a meal-time mantra for most parents - and getting the little buggers to eat enough to stay healthy and active.

Oliver is entirely sold on the food values of our time. His campaign manifesto states: 'A lunchtime school dinner should give kids a third of their daily nutrition requirements. That's why it should be packed with not only fresh produce, but all the proteins, minerals and vitamins needed for health and growth. Diet also affects kids' behaviour, their physical and mental development, and their ability to learn - another good reason to ban the junk and go fresh and tasty.' (2)

It is a fallacy that there was some 'golden age' of school dinners

But there is little difference in nutrients between fresh and frozen food. Even the 'junk' food contains plenty of protein, minerals and vitamins. The suggestion that frozen chips don't contain vitamin C, for example, is just plain wrong - a portion of chips cooked from frozen has considerably more vitamin C and fibre than an apple (3).

Diet can affect development if kids are malnourished, but that simply isn't the case in Britain. The discussion of the relationship between diet and behaviour is highly contentious.

The other fallacy is that there was some 'golden age' of school dinners. There may have been more variety in the past, but it was still stodge. We fondly remember the puddings: apple crumble, or the chocolate rice crispie things that disintegrated into your custard. But my school's foul-tasting braised liver put me off the idea of trying paté for years; and if burgers today are of dubious origin, god knows what went into a 'steaklet'.

For a whole year, I skipped the school canteen in favour of the general store across the road. My lunch at school consisted of ham on a white roll, a packet of Monster Munch and a can of pop - every day. This was a positive boon compared with my mate, who subsisted on two packets of cheese and onion crisps, a Mars bar and a can of coke (his teeth have seen better days).

Better school dinners would be nice - but shouldn't we be more concerned about better schools full stop? In that respect, Jamie Oliver's address to the school assembly on his first day - along the lines of, 'Err.. nice one... big love to the teachers and the dinner ladies... err... thanks for having me... so, yeah, like, err... nice one' - hardly created a shining example to students of English.

In fact, there's something galling about Oliver riding in to save our kids; it stinks of being a moral entrepreneur. Maybe he does think he's doing it for the love of food and good health - but the TV series, spin-off book and the image shift from mockney cook to community-minded family man won't do him any harm either. In the process, however, he is evangelising middle-class celebrity obsessions that are as vacuous as Cherie Blair's crystals or Jennifer Aniston's latest diet.

If Jamie Oliver succeeds in getting Thai green curry and foccacia on to the school menu, fine. But the thought of him promoting his modern prejudices at the same time is enough to put you right off your dinner.

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Re: http://www.easypizza.co.uk
Posted by stronghold
on the 9-Mar-05 at 16:09:50

I totally agree, i remember fondly in the dim and distant past of sixties school dinners. Stodge, stodge and more stodge and afterwards running around a football pitch was the last thing i wanted to do.
There is nothing wrong with burger and chips or pizza and chips as long as thats not the only food you eat.A balanced diet is the important thing, fast food as a treat is ok but not every meal.

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Re: http://www.easypizza.co.uk
Posted by home_from_home
on the 11-Mar-05 at 15:36:29

The real story here is that Jamie, trying to remain down with the kids while trying to maintain cross-over appeal with an older generation, finds School Dinners the best vehicle for playing this out. He can be on the side of the kids as he squeaks under the 37p per meal but win buy-in from the oldies applauding his veggies-please campaign. To make the story even more acute, he doesn’t just choose any school in any region. In surveys of dietary habits, the region he has chosen has the poorest reports of 5+ fruit and veg a day.

We ain’t watching reality folks. We are watching a carefully contrived, nicely performed and artfully edited modern morality tale.

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Re: http://www.easypizza.co.uk
Posted by stellios
on the 16-Mar-05 at 01:49:38

[URL=http://www.easypizza.co.uk]pizza[/URL]

i cant understand why they put coke machines and nestle vending machines in schools.

obesity and dentures are the only likely results

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Re: http://www.easypizza.co.uk
Posted by home_from_home
on the 16-Mar-05 at 12:05:07

Coke machines etc in schools are pretty easy to understand. Schools are strapped for cash and these things generate income. What is the difference between a machine and the good old school tuck shop? You could think that schools should be promoting healthy lifestyles (they should). This isn't the same as total abstinence from naughty things but a "everything in moderation" message.

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Re: Good
Posted by FC MK
on the 16-Mar-05 at 13:37:50

Given that Britain, outside London, has one of the worst culinary cultures on the planet, I welcome Oliver's attempt to upgrade our national eating habits.

Britain is overflowing with fat, unattractive people with blotchy skin and tombstone teeth.

Hypermarket shelves are rammed with bland, processed muck.

By improving the eating habits of our kids, Oliver is at least seeking to make improvements at a grass-roots level.

I hope this trend continues.

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So why the spam about yet more junk food?
Posted by Keith W
on the 17-Mar-05 at 08:42:43

Interesting post "Stellios", but I have to ask you what the connection is between the frozen processed crap that is Easy Pizza and school dinners is. Are you suggesting that Easy Pizza should be served at schools? I think we should be told.

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Re: http://www.easypizza.co.uk
Posted by rana
on the 17-Mar-05 at 15:29:20

and why is alcohol sold in petrol stations and advertised on the pumps?

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Keith W
Posted by dazza
on the 21-Mar-05 at 16:18:54

Have you read 'Stelios' post properly? if so you'll have noticed he's obviously affiliated to easypizza.co.uk NOT easypizza.com so apart from the inevitable legal wranglings between the 2 I doubt he's really interested in the EasyPizza.com pizza's

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