Jamie Oliver challenged on School meal government standards debate by Cucina
School caterer Cucina Restaurants has hit back at suggestions by Jamie Oliver that meal standards will slip, if the nutritional guidelines are not mandatory for academies and free schools too and challenged Jamie to come and see higher standards.
The celebrity chef has slammed Education Secretary Michael Gove for “eroding” nutritional standards. He said the Government’s decision not to make nutritional standards mandatory in free schools and academies would be a disaster, echoing the views of LACA (formerly the Local Authority Caterers Association). “It’s very simple. The private companies come in; they’re incentivised by profit,” he argued. “If the standards aren’t there they can sell a whole genre of new stuff, going back to the stuff I was fighting seven years ago.”
Cucina is supportive of a level playing field in which all schools and academies are subject to the same rules, and say it would not be in everyone’s interests to lower standards in order to make a fast profit. However, it disagreed with Jamie Oliver on what would happen if free schools and academies are not subject to the same standards on nutrition.
Steve Quinn, managing director of Cucina Restaurants, catering for 37 schools around the UK, 18 of which are academies, said:
“In my experience, the worse standards are in those schools that have not been market tested since the standards were introduced, not academies and free schools who largely have recently appointed caterers and new schools to work in. Wasteful practices creep in which can be removed by private companies saving schools money and improving food at the same time. The views expressed by Jamie are somewhat surprising and we would urge him to come visit and see food standards in the academies we serve, before making sweeping statements like this.”
Steve Quinn insisted that not only has Cucina embraced the guidelines they have exceeded them in many areas too. He said:
“We don’t and will not put the reputation of our company on the line in order to improve profitability. The nutritional standards are our base guidelines and we exceeded them long before we had to when they came into effect in September 2007.” He added;
“For example, all our food is prepared from scratch in our kitchens daily and we use ’stealthy eating principles to hide goodness in food kids love to eat. All our meat is red tractor and our fish from sustainable sources.
There will never be a return to the days of Turkey Twizzlers because, thanks to Jamie and hard work by professionals across the whole school catering sector, attitudes have significantly changed among not only school staff and operators, but also students themselves. I see no evidence of standards slipping at any school or academy, we need a level playing field for anyone in school catering. One rule for one type of educational establishment should be one rule for all."
Cucina Restaurants Ltd. serves fresh food to 50,000 pupils at 37 contracts up and down the country, 18 of which are at academies. It is committed to providing quality, healthy meals at all schools from the freshest ingredients, some grown in school. Cucina was formed in December 2005, prior to Jamie Oliver’s stand against the poor quality of school meals and has grown quickly based on its philosophy of serving food kids love to eat and learn about, without compromising quality and healthy eating principles. The School Food Trust has chosen a case study for its web site about how well Cucina does this.
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In October 2011, nearly 1.2 million pupils were attending academies – this means around one in seven pupils in state maintained schools are now attending Academies and one in three pupils in secondary schools. More than a third of all secondary schools are academies or are in the process of converting.
1,097 schools have become academies since the Academies Act was passed in July 2010, a six-fold increase on numbers before the last General Election. 3 opened in 2002, 9 in 2003, 5 in 2004, 10 opened in 2005, 19 opened in 2006, 37 opened in 2007, 47 opened in 2008 and 70 opened in 2009.
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http://www.marketingprojects.co.uk/news/cucina
Cucina Restaurants Ltd. was founded by Steve Quinn, a food and support services professional with 26 years experience within the industry, working with international hotel groups such as Rank, Thistle, Hilton and Concorde (in France), as well as contract catering firms Sodexho (formerly Gardner Merchant) and the Compass Group. Steve works with a team of top chefs and professionals to ensure that his vision of great food is truly embraced and delivered.
Cucina provides restaurant quality food and have installed professional chefs to run its operations at the new contracts.
All food is made from scratch in Cucina’s kitchens with chef theatre, ranging from homemade breads, fresh soups, delicious yoghurts, wholesome sandwiches and salads to fresh pizzas baked in professional pizza ovens. Cucina even makes their own tomato ketchup and mango chutney and are constantly updating their menus incorporating ‘stealthy eating’ and fresh ingredients to keep pupils and staff happy at all restaurants.
Please view the website for press releases or large resolution downloadable photos at www.marketingprojects.co.uk/news/cucina in Cucina’s press office there.
For Cucina’s top recipes:
www.marketingprojects.co.uk/news/cucina/news/recipes-from-cucina
The School Food Trust has published a case study about Cucina’s work ‘Cucina Catering – inspiring dissatisfied students to give school meals a try again’. It is published at:
http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/school-cooks-caterers/case-studies/topic/16/increased-uptake-financial-success/5/0/cucina-catering-inspiring-dissatisfied-students-to-give-school-meals-a-try-again
Steve Quinn is a consultant on the School Food Trust’s Caterer’s Forum. More information at: http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/school-cooks-caterers/for-school-cooks-caterers/caterers-forum
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Jane Harrad-Roberts Mobile: 07785 395705
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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
