This is a text-only version of an article first published on Wednesday, 15 June 2016. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
CELEBRITY chef Raymond Blanc was set to be the top speaker at an event at a food conference at St Mary's CE School, Haddenham, Buckinghamshire in June. Raymond will be returning to the school after his first visit in January when, after demonstrating to pupils how to cook simple food with fresh ingredients, he took 10 children into the new Eco Lodge for a go at creating a Mice in Mayonnaise dish.
He was accompanied by his son, Olivier Blanc and actress Charlotte Salt (Dr Sam Nicholls in Casualty) to launch Henri le Worm , an app that encourages children to discover more about food, ingredients and nature. In June, as the Door was going to press, he was to be joined by nutritionist Amanda Ursell, Chair of the National Obesity Forum Tam Fry, Blue Peter Gardener Chris Collins and Juliane Noble from the Jamie Oliver Foundation for the conference. Headteacher, Karen Collett, is bidding for funding to improve her school kitchen as she aims to find a healthy solution to a Government initiative stipulating the return of free school meals from September.
Karen, who also has a school garden where food is grown, was frustrated by the way St Mary's, like many other schools, do not have an adequate kitchen and does not want to serve up mass produced, airline style meals.
"I've become a bit of a spokesperson for Buckinghamshire schools on this. "I'm bidding for funds for a kitchen, with food education coming back onto the curriculum, for teaching children about cooking and for producing healthy food. "In her bid for funding she says: "We are committed to making a difference and believe that if children learn to eat well, they will eat well as adults.
We also believe that children who eat well learn well. "