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Lessons to Be Learned From Fine Dining School

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 December 2005, 09:00 CST

By EMMA SEITH

The pork steak is smothered in a piping-hot red onion and redcurrant gravy. It is so tender that it falls apart with just the lightest of touches from knife and fork. This is a promising beginning and the f lavour does not disappoint. The meat virtually melts in the mouth and the sauce, which could easily be tart and something of an assault on the taste buds, complements it perfectly.

The broccoli accompanying the pork is neither too hard, nor too soft while the mashed potatoes have been whipped until f luffy and are well seasoned.

Things seem as though they couldn't get any better when out comes pear and chocolate custard for dessert. The custard is wonderfully rich and tasty - the key, I'm told, is the use of both plain and milk organic chocolate.

So where are such delights being served? An award-winning eaterie in Hurlford, an urban town near Kilmarnock, which has been praised by Jamie Oliver for its cuisine and which can boast of having satisfied the hunger pangs of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Stuffy and unaffordable you're probably thinking, but not so. Two courses here will set you back GBP1.48 and the atmosphere could hardly be more relaxed. There is not a starched white linen tablecloth in sight, no intimidating ranks of fancy silverware stacked up at either side of your plate or po-faced staff. Instead the tablecloths are a homely blue and white check and of the wipeable variety, you pick up your own cutlery from a tray and the staff are friendly and open. In short this is a refreshingly unpretentious dining experience.

Sound good? Well, too bad. Unless you are one of the 268 pupils currently attending Hurlford Primary School, you can't dine here - the fine food described above is what's on offer in the school canteen.

Hurlford Primary is one of 11 primary schools in East Ayrshire that has decided to go further when it comes to healthy food, meaning school meals are 70per cent organic, 70per cent local produce and 90per cent unprocessed foods.

The efforts of the schools and local council to improve the diets of their young charges have not gone unnoticed. For a start, at Hurlford, in spite of a small price rise, uptake has increased by 10per cent to 68per cent from August 2004 to June this year. Nationally, school meal uptake fell over the same period by an average of at least 2per cent.

The accolades have also come rolling in. Hurlford Primary recently won the Soil Association's Food for Life School of the Year Award - presented by Jamie Oliver - and last week, at the Guardian's public service awards, East Ayrshire Council picked up the prize for innovation and progress. They were credited with creating Scotland's first organic, locally procured, sustainable school meals service.

Thus, be it a chicken wrap, salmon pasta arrabiata, Spanish omelette or roast vegetable couscous - all of which are on offer at the primaries involved - more often than not you can pinpoint exactly where the meat and veg you are eating has come from.

For instance, poultry comes from the farm at the College of Agriculture at Auchincruive by Ayr; raw and cooked meats come from Afton Glen Farm at New Cumnock; tomatoes come from Darvel, both in East Ayrshire. Meanwhile, local and imported fruit and vegetables are sourced from a local supplier, Stair Organics, near Tarbolton in Ayrshire.

Dried ingredients come from a little further afield: a Glasgow co- op. However, even with this slightly less local arrangement, the school has managed to cut the average distance its food has to travel from 400 miles to just 30.

Robin Gourlay, head of catering with East Ayrshire Council, says: "We think the best way to change the Scottish diet is by demonstrating to children how great healthy, freshlycooked food can taste and encourage them to try it at home. We were using food from all over the world before. I asked our meat suppliers where the meat was coming from and they wouldn't tell me."

Four different weekly menus are rotated and generally speaking unhealthy food is not an option. Chips only appear once every week.

Come January, work is scheduled to begin on new menus that will be introduced at the start of the new school year in August. It's a challenge to come up with dishes that the children will like and that will give them all the nutrients they require.

Liz Leggate, area manager of on-site services with East Ayrshire Council, says: "It's all about persuasion. If you can get one to try something new, then the rest will follow. At least we don't have to consider the cost so much. At the moment we are spending what we need to spend because of Scottish Executive money."

The Scottish Executive's GBP63.5m Hungry for Success initiative gives money to local authorities to spend on school meals. The scheme was due to finish in 2006 but funding has now been extended for a further three years.

So will the improved school meals be rolled out to other schools in the area? Gourlay hopes so and is keen to make available the lessons learned in East Ayrshire to other Scottish local authorities.

"Everything so far says it's viable, " he says. "It does cost more - about 20per cent on each meal - but that works out as only 20- something pence. And when you consider the boost to local employment, sustainability issues, food quality, animal welfare issues and, of course, the benefits to the children, I think this extra cost pales into insignificance."

Source: Herald, The; Glasgow (UK)

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