Then we’ll see new people coming into the profession
Then we’ll see new people coming into the profession.”Working with Ashlyn’s Organic Farm, the courses are aimed at those already working as dinner ladies, those who want to brush up their skills, and those who are thinking of trying out the career for the first time.Before Jamie’s School Dinners hit the screen, Greenwich council had 54 dinner-lady vacancies. She published a book, The Dinner Lady (Bantam Press, £16.99), with more than 100 sure-fire recipes, and rejoiced as Jamie Oliver took the school dinner revolution into the headlines and Parliament.Her latest project, officially opened by Oliver recently at High Laver Hall in Essex, is a training kitchen for dinner ladies. Courses cost £300, and classes are small, with a maximum of 16 students. All the ingredients are sourced locally.Orrey has gone on to become school-meals policy adviser for the Soil Association, which promotes organic food and farming in the UK.
Her job interview involved a cook-off between herself and another candidate. She had to make 96 portions of lasagne, and was assessed on cooking style, temperature control, presentation and, of course, taste. “It was terrifying!”With her team, she cooks 175 to 195 lunches a day – three choices of veg, one main course, one vegetarian, and a choice of puddings. With great success; in a year, she increased the number of children eating school dinners from 70 to 200.For Plum, following Orrey was a privilege, and a challenge. Tired of dishing up processed food in the name of “best value” – “What they really meant was ‘cheapest’” – Orrey decided to bring back real food and real nutrition. Finding Nemo pie? How could Mrs Plum have been so cruel? “I’ll have the jacket potato,” he said.
“Not mentioning the creatures,” says Sara Plum, is one of the lessons she’s had to learn since giving up her job as a catering manager at British Sugar in Newark to become catering manager (aka head dinner-lady) at St Peter’s Primary in Nottinghamshire.Although jobs in school kitchens pay substantially less than general catering (the top job in a secondary school pays £15,000 a year)‚ she doesn’t regret the pay cut. You are well loved and popular, the little ones think you’re brill, and you feel more than just a dinner lady.
I can say it has changed my life.”St Peter’s is where Jeannette Orrey, now the UK’s most famous dinner-lady, quietly began the school food revolution. She finishes at 3.30pm, has the holidays to spend with her two young children, and enjoys the thanks of satisfied customers.”It’s a different world, working with children. Mrs Plum got it very wrong. When the boy asked her what was in the fish pie, she told him: “Fish. You know, that swim in the sea.”
The little boy’s face sank. Bigger companies now require more specialists – they deploy large teams of people with clearly defined skills, like programming or art work. A lot will depend on where your son’s particular talents lie, and he should scour the websites of universities running relevant courses for the exact content of modules (most of this information is available on line) and see what interests him most.Careers adviser: Maria Lucio, occupational psychologist, Career Analysts.Send your queries to Caroline Haydon at ‘The Independent’, Education Desk, Independent House, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS; or fax 020-7005 2143; or e-mail to chaydon blueyonder.co.uk.