Bistro experience feeds student minds
Catering experts Cucina have opened an evening bistro to the public at one of their school restaurants, where students, with the help of Cucina’s award-winning chefs, are preparing and delivering healthy meals.
Cucina, which serves fresh food to more than 25,000 pupils at 30 schools up and down the country, has opened the bistro at Arthur Mellows Village College in Peterborough. Students design the menus and spend two days preparing food for the bistro, serving the meals on the third evening.
Current menus, which pupils have learnt to prepare and cook, include: demi-tasse of sweet potato, coconut and spinach soup with Caribbean prawn skewers, roasted breast of chicken with sorrel butter, confit shallots, asparagus and mushroom risotto and lemon tart with soft fruits and crème fraiche.
Steve Collins, Cucina’s Head Chef at Arthur Mellows Village College, said:
“The bistro evenings promote the links between curriculum activities in the school, whilst drawing on the expertise and the services that Cucina provides for the school. It is important to be committed to providing healthy meals at the school but also to feed the students’ minds and create enthusiasm and knowledge about the food they eat. The menu selection shows the students have an understanding of how to complement flavours and textures whilst also drawing on the student’s knowledge of different cultures and tastes.
“As a group, the student’s feedback was that they felt they had developed their knowledge of the products they worked with and also how to work under pressure. For myself, I get a kick out of seeing enthusiasm and giving people a sense of accomplishment. When you see the smiles as the students walk back into the kitchen, you realise that all the hard work was worth it.”
Jonathan Oakley, Deputy Head Teacher at Arthur Mellows Village College, added:
“The bistro evening demonstrates how young people can excel when given responsibility and a challenge. The event is becoming increasingly popular in the community and its reputation for quality and value continues to go from strength to strength.”
Comments from diners:
“I would like to thank all concerned with the Arthur Mellows Village College bistro evening. My friends and I had a lovely evening. We certainly appreciated all of the effort and hard work put in by everyone; it was definitely worthwhile and superb value for money. The students all put in their best efforts with cooking and service; they were all a credit to the school with their good manners and smart appearance.”
“Emma was so proud of herself on Thursday evening and she said she would have loved to have done it again on Friday as she had so much fun!!”
“It was a lovely night which I thoroughly enjoyed. Overall it was a very good night, which I would strongly recommend to others. The students worked hard. They looked smart and were interested in what we thought of the meal. Congratulations to all concerned.”
“Thank you very much to everyone who worked so hard on the bistro night. My daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed our meal and I know that Mark enjoyed the experience too. Special thanks to Steve who Mark really enjoyed working with and who looked after the students very well during the week.”
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Students prepare meals for the evening bistro at Arthur Mellows Village College with the help of Cucina Head Chef Steve Collins
Notes to Editors
Cucina was founded by Steve Quinn, a food and support services professional with 26 years experience within international catering firms. Steve works with a team of top chefs and professionals to ensure that his vision of great food is truly embraced and delivered. Within three years of start-up, Cucina has an annual turnover of more than £5 million.
A Head Chef oversees each site, offering an educational food service which links the classroom to the kitchen.
Cucina provides restaurant quality food. Everything is made from scratch in Cucina’s kitchens, from homemade breads, fresh soups, homemade yoghurts, sandwiches and salads to fresh pizzas baked in professional pizza ovens. Cucina even makes their own tomato ketchup and mango chutney.
For Case Studies of Cucina Catering inspiring dissatisfied students to give school meals a try again please visit: http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/casestudy-detail.asp?caseid=103
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Client Contact: Cucina Restaurants Ltd Tel: 0845 3891320
Steve Quinn Email: steve@cucina.co.uk
Managing Director Website: www.cucina.co.uk
