How our master chefs feed young minds

At Sodexo we’re making school meals truly astonishing. And just as well - they face some pretty stiff competition these days. Whether it’s by themselves or with their parents, pupils are visiting more restaurants and experiencing a wider range of global cuisines than ever before.

We start by sending the chefs from Independents by Sodexo to exclusive culinary workshops in Paris every year to hone their specialist skills.

During the three-day intensive course at L’École Lenôtre (one of the world’s most prestigious cooking schools) our chefs dive deep into different specialist areas. From baking fine artisan bread to crafting delicious chocolate. After the three days they’ve learned to create appetising, nutritious meals pupils will love.

Tasty School Meals by Top Chefs

Sodexo chefs enjoy tuition from the very top. They study the science of bread baking from a professor in bakery and viennoiserie. Mastering new shapes, patterns and flavours they can whisk back to school bakeries. They’re given a chocolate Masterclass by Lenôtre’s head chocolatier, where they learn the art of the perfect dessert – every pupil and teachers’ dream! And, not long after Paris, they get the opportunity to start featuring their own exciting new creations as part of Sodexo schools meals.

All because the chefs we send to L’École Lenôtre are the same chefs who run our innovation hubs. Meaning all our kitchens are quickly infused with the same new passion and exciting techniques. Helping our catering teams up and down the country make consistently creative, healthy school meals.

Creating Fresh Food from Scratch for School Menus

A balanced, nutritious diet can help school children thrive. Boosting concentration in the classroom and performance on the sports field. It’s also important for mental health and well-being, helping them grow into healthy, strong young adults.

Step into one of our kitchens and you’ll see that’s why we make all our food from scratch. With ‘seasonality’, ‘provenance’ and ‘freshness’ the watchwords behind everything we create.

But we also know providing students with healthy food means more than just serving up nutritious meals. It also means helping pupils understand the benefits of eating a balanced diet and staying active – so they can make informed choices and form healthy habits for life.

Adding a sprinkle of star power

For this to work, healthy eating has to seem cool. And helping us make it appealing is celebrity chef James Tanner. The Ready, Steady Cook star regularly visits our schools, teaches classes and judges cooking competitions. Using his expertise and just a sprinkle of star power to engage children and teachers.

We're Green and Lean

At Sodexo we take environmental targets very seriously, so another top goal has been making our school meals sustainable. By introducing ‘Green and Lean’ meals, we’re offering food that’s healthy and good for the environment. These contain less meat, they’re sourced responsibly and they’re crammed with healthy, wholesome ingredients. And because they’re so tasty, teens happily tuck in. Meaning precious little plate waste too.

How Do You Make Hungry Pupils Smile?

We love creating healthy tasty food that inspires teenagers to enjoy their meals.

We also want to know exactly how schools and pupils feel about the food we’re serving, so we obtain feedback from school councils and ask pupils to complete comment cards and engage with us on social media. We also meet with parents and teachers to hear their concerns and expectations.

Pupils’ health, wellbeing and satisfaction lies at the heart of everything we do. And the training in Paris is all part of our commitment to quality – bringing continuous improvement to our already high standards. It’s because we passionately believe young minds should be excited by new foods and young bodies well nourished, setting them up for a long and healthy life.

Quality above all else

Our dedication to providing a service that improves Quality of Life comes from a desire to help people thrive. Whether it’s for Independents by Sodexo or any of our other integrated facilities management solutions, we help people be the best they can be.

In this instance we do that by recruiting and training the most passionate chefs, buying the best ingredients and listening to children, parents, and our own people so we can always provide the very best quality of life services.