In association with the Catering Managers Association of Great Britain and the Channel Islands

Pupils from Lambeth schools have been busy creating tasty menus for a borough wide competition.

The dishes of the winning entries were served at all schools across Lambeth on Winners Day held on July 2. Children were asked to create a menu that would be suitable to be a school meal, be a healthy option and appeal to their school friends. Lambeth’s school catering firm, Harrison Catering, already make sure they provide healthy meals and wanted the special creation to match the strict standards for Lambeth school meals. That meant creating a main meal using meat, fish or a vegetarian option with emphasis on the use of fresh produce. Each dish also needed a healthy portion of vegetables or salad and some sort of carbohydrate.

Nine-year-old Lucas Jones of Heathbrook Primary was chosen as the winner for his Rainbow Frittata - a colourful mix of vegetables in an omelette. He also designed a side salad and served it up with couscous.

He said: “I chose this menu because it is colourful, healthy and tastes nice to eat. The idea came to me in assembly - I based it on couscous and made up the rest.”

As well as seeing his meal on every school menu for a day, Lucas won his own chefs uniform, a cookery book and baking set and he and his school friends were treated to a fun day of food and workshops on 8 July when Lucas was Head Chef.

The runner up was Keo Adami aged 7 from Elmwood Primary school with Smoked Haddock with Aioli and three year six pupils from Vauxhall Primary Jade Nicholls, Ricora Reid and Abdulaleem Salah with Chicken Fajita

Cllr Paul McGlone, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People’s Service, added: “The link between health and happiness is widely recognised, and so it is important children are encouraged to eat nutritious meals as their diet holds the key to future success. This is a wonderful competition and it was fabulous to see so many tasty recipes which the children clearly put a lot of thought into.”

Fore more information contact: Jacqui Lewis, Harrison Catering Services Ltd. Tel: 01844 211919 . Email Jacqui.lewis@harrisoncatering.co.uk . www.harrisoncatering.co.uk