Renowned Chefs Take Up 90p School Food Challenge
A host of culinary stars are taking up the challenge to cook and serve school lunches costing just 90p a plate at a London state secondary school.
On Tuesday 27 April, Jeremy Lee will take over the kitchen for the day at Streatham’s Woodmansterne School.
Over the coming months, Anna Tobias and Lulu Cox will follow suit.
They were invited along by school head chefs, Jacob Taylor and Sam Riches, who have been transforming the food on offer at the school, making all meals from scratch and encouraging pupils to take an interest in food.
Sam and Jacob work alongside the charity Chefs in Schools to push boundaries in school food, showing better is possible and that school lunches can rival restaurant food.
First up to don school chef whites is Jeremy Lee - star of the Great British Food Menu and chef proprietor at Soho restaurant Quo Vadis.
Jeremy will be cooking at the school on Tuesday 27th April - serving up a cuttlefish and chickpea stew, followed by rhubarb crumble. The pupils are accustomed to trying different foods - mussels, razor clams, koji, sushi and seaweed have been served in the past. Cuttlefish, however, will be a first.
Jacob Taylor said: “We’re very excited to see how this works out. We hope the kids will like the cuttlefish and try the dish. It will be the first time we’ve had it on the menu.
“Our main aim is to create a buzz in the kitchen, to link kids up with excellent chefs and to get them talking about food. We think school food should be exciting, inspire ideas and creativity. We’re very grateful to the four incredible chefs for volunteering their time and coming to help out. We hope this is the start of something special and that other chefs will want to take up the 90p plate challenge.”
The first three chefs taking up the 90p plate challenge have impressive backgrounds.
Next in the kitchen after Jeremy Lee is Lulu Cox - a former chef at Bocca Di Lupo, St. John and Rochelle Canteen. She is now a private chef and champions sustainable produce.
Last but not least, Anna Tobias. Anna worked at River Café and Rochelle Canteen, where she spent a number of years as Head Chef. Anna opened her first solo restaurant in 2020, Cafe Deco.
The kitchen team at Woodmansterne hope to see more chefs volunteering to take part. Chefs in Schools will then work with them to roll out the 90p plate challenge nationwide.
To follow the journey follow @woodmansterneschoolkitchen and @chefsinschools_uk on Instagram.
HOW DOES THE 90p PLATE CHALLENGE WORK:
Photos will be available after each chef visit.
- Chefs are given a brief to design a 2 course menu - a main and dessert - for 250 secondary school kids.
- The budget is 90p per plate.
- Nuts, sesame and pork are out. Apart from that it's up to the chef.
- Jeremy Lee will cook on 27th April
- Lulu Cox on the 22nd June
- Anna Tobias on the 8th July
- The chefs will have support from school chefs and a kitchen assistant.
- Prep can start from 8am. Service is from 12.40 until 1.30.
- After service there is a quick workshop with 20 or so students who are interested in cooking.
