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Whilst most in the industry (including me) were very critical of the School Food Standards, it has been the catalyst for much needed change. It will always be a challenge to serve 1000 pupils in a morning break and lunch in just over an hour but good caterers are still finding innovative ways to achieve real theatre and quality in their service to pupils - with now meteoric sales in return.
In independent schools, there has always been a higher available budget and a higher expectation, but the budget was not always used wisely and often expectations missed. Today, through working with Bursars and caterers, quality and value is shining through. Product provenance and exceptional culinary skills are combining to provide Independent school pupils with the best food offerings. In addition, service costs are more transparent and better managed providing Bursars with real value for money. Generally, there is more time for pupils to enjoy their eating experience and therefore more time for the caterer to impress. Good caterers are exploiting this to the full by taking the best and freshest of food service innovations; wok cooking, omelette bars, carveries, freshly made pasta, tapas and fruit bars and making them work in volume.
In colleges and universities, with a total lack of restriction, the high street has truly arrived but at better value to students. Caterers are emulating the high street offers but, by providing an in-house and equal quality version without the high franchise and branding costs, can serve students what they want without the high tariff. Clearly, the facility, marketing and branding must be professionally developed on-trend to up the standards seen on the high street. However, most colleges and universities have excellent marketing departments where students can engage in the branding project; providing both quality and value.
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Whilst being very cheerful about the very positive signs in all education sectors, a cautionary note; we need to encourage all caterers to be brave enough to trial all their food service ideas no matter how radical they may seem. In every sector we are expecting the pupils and students to eat in the same restaurant day after day at the same service times; this is complete madness! We cannot change the restaurant but we can change the offer from time to time. It is essential that we continually prove to our education customers that they can trust our quality and value and that they should keep coming back to our services to check out our different offers today. I started by talking about great food and service, so would like to end on the same note by praising some caterers we work with for their predominate use of fresh, seasonal foods and the creation of innovative dishes (even vegetarian dishes without cheese!). The pupils and students we speak to in the course of our projects all ask for quick to get to, fresh food, attractively presented that tastes good and represents value. Sounds easy doesn’t it?
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Check out Innovate My School's Catering Services Directory for an in-depth comparison of innovative catering services.