Jamie (Oliver)'s School Dinners

[gazzae]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

I'd have to agree that 15 was the most overpriced and dissapointing meal I have had in a good while - I think it was £60 a head for the taster menu + wine. Tasty, but not at all filling. Compared to similar meals elsewhere I was dissapointed. As were others at the table.

£60 a head? That is pricey for food cooked by "trainees"! The only time I've spent around £60 a head in a restaurant it was one with a Michelin Star.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by gazzae

£60 a head? That is pricey for food cooked by "trainees"! The only time I've spent around £60 a head in a restaurant it was one with a Michelin Star.

http://www.fifteenrestaurant.com/fif...rant/menu.html
Add £40 for the matched wine selection.

[allieyoung666]

Yeah but I bet it tastes nice when we go to the tontine which is owned by the Mc Coy brothers we easily spend double that and it is not even cooked by them! Trainees have to get experience from somehwere same as any trade!!!!

[Tezcatlipoca]

Ooops........

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/st...469502,00.html

Originally Posted by The Guardian

Private deals block Jamie's school dinners

Felicity Lawrence and Katharine Quarmby
Monday April 25, 2005
The Guardian

The school meals revolution set in motion by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has already run into difficulties as long-term contracts with private companies prevent schools getting rid of junk food.

The Guardian has learned that new schools locked into 25-year contracts through private finance initiatives are finding that they cannot rid their menus of junk food despite the government's pledge.

Other schools are also running into problems as they discover that they face substantial financial penalties if they try to opt out of long-running contracts with private catering companies.

(snip)

A campaign group in Merton, set up in the wake of the series on school meals, told the Guardian that its local educa tion authority has said that the six new PFI schools in the south London borough may be exempt from the new guidelines because of their contracts.

Most Merton secondary schools are locked into a 25-year PFI contract with a company called New Schools. It has subcontracted all services for 25 years to Atkins Asset Management. Atkins has subcontracted again, giving a 25-year catering contract for the schools to Scolarest catering.

Parents, governors and teachers have expressed dissatisfaction with the level of service and the quality of food provided by Scolarest.

There are some 450 PFI schools and many will be tied into similar long-term agreements to provide services.

(snip)

Good old PFI...

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by Matt D

Ooops........

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/st...469502,00.html




Good old PFI...

And you'd have thought the education secretary would have thought of that wouldn't you?
Or maybe she hoped people wouldn't notice...

[BBKing]

There's also the slight problem that not all schools have proper kitchens any more, only areas for heating up pre-processed rubbish.

PFI is an absolute scandal, incidentally, taking control of schools and hospitals out of the hands of government and into the hands of private companies who are free to sell it on to anyone, particularly foreign venture capitalists who have no interest in our health or education but know a bucket of free cash when the see it.

My initial reaction as a parent would be to go into school and plug the snack machines money slots with superglue...

[Xaccers]

So labour have been thinking about this for ages and ages eh?
Why don't I believe that?

We have known as a community that junk food is bad for children.There have been any of studies done where children's behaviour(and prisoner's) have improved considerably.So much so that I know several sets of parents who decided to remove as much junk food and E additives from their childrens diets and swore that it made a profound difference.IN fact one friend of my son's could never have crisps,coke,or anything that contained E additives or sugar because he became a monster..I can say that when he did have them he did become high as a kite.The school certainly knew the effect it had on him.Even my daughter decided to voluntarily cut her coke cola intake because she found she got too giggly and silly after drinking it.

So I think it is time that we stood up to big business about this..I'm positive if parents use their power as consumers to insist that they provide healthier food in school they can win.Nestle could attest to the effect of consumer power.So can Barclays who were forced by customers changing allegiance to rethink their presence in South Africa during the aparthied years.We the customer/consumer SHOULD have the power to change things.All we need is the will.