School Food You’ll Want To Serve at Home

A school food charity, whose chefs get pupils eating kale crumble, ‘naked’ fish and puddings packed with veg, is releasing a new cookbook this spring. Packed with fresh ideas and easy to follow recipes, Feed Your Family is set to become a kitchen staple for every family household.

The charity behind it - Chefs in Schools - is backed by the great and good of the culinary world and works to improve child health, boost social mobility and tackle obesity and food insecurity through school food.

They train school kitchen teams to cook all meals from scratch, supporting them as they introduce new flavours and ingredients to the children. The charity works in around 60 schools, reaching over 20,000 children, and that number is growing.

Over the years parents have asked for the recipes their children are enjoying at lunchtime - and now, thanks to this debut cookbook, they are readily available to all.

Feed Your Family recipes have been tested on 1000s of children. They include feasting plates, curries, and street food. Dishes like ‘naked fish’ -  hake baked and served with a tomato sauce - sit alongside ‘orange pasta’ – a carrot and butternut sauce packed with nutrients. Both named as such because they made children laugh and were therefore more likely to try the dishes.

Crucially for many parents, the book also contains lessons learned from years of feeding kids – tips on how to introduce new flavours and simple swaps that make meals more nutritious.

Recipes from the charity’s supporters - including Yotam Ottolenghi, Anna Jones, Thomasina Miers and Henry Dimbleby, are found alongside recipes created by school chefs.

Nicole Pisani, co-founder of Chefs in Schools and co-author of the book, said: “So many people have worked with us over the years to show what is possible in school food. We are now delighted to share these recipes with everyone.

“If there is one thing I would pass on about helping children learn to love and try new foods – it is to cook or grow food together. Once children start getting involved, their enthusiasm is limitless.”
Sales of the book (RRP £14.99) will support the charity, which believes school food is more than just a meal. Research shows if lunches are improved, the pupils’ health, wellbeing and attainment also increases.

The charity targets its support in areas where pupils rely on free school meals and in schools struggling to meet the school food standards. They teach school kitchen teams to serve up clean, healthy, inexpensive, generation-powering, mind-opening, society-changing food.

Joanna Weinberg, co-author and Chefs in Schools patron, said: “This book harnesses the wisdom of many incredible chefs who are passionate about feeding children well. There are recipes for every taste and occasion - but it also supports a worthy cause. It costs around £15.00 per child to start transforming the food for each school pupil – every sale of the book will help this vital work. But we also hope it helps you and your loved ones create happy memories built around food.”  

The book is being published by Pavilion, an imprint of Harper Collins, on 3rd March and is available to pre-order now.