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Bygrove Primary School, Tower Hamlets
The chef struck a deal with her 600 regu- lar customers and now makes pollock fish fingers coated with oats and panko. A single, chunky finger might be served with peas and egg ribbons – a finely chopped omelette that the diners love.
Alternative fish dishes, on rotation on Fri- days, include hake or pollock skewers, which are rolled in polenta, and salmon and sam- phire, cooked in a kombu (seaweed) stock. Accompaniments include Japanese brown rice with vegetables, tandoori carrot or home- made baked beans. Pisani says there are no steadfast rules on what the children like. “I have got to learn that they love umami. They love soy sauce, pesto, Parmesan. They like edible flowers. Some things are really off the radar and some things that you think would be child-friendly they don’t like. You can’t have a formula.” Pisani has a brigade of eight, including five chefs. Her plan is for all serving staff to be trained as cooks to boost job satisfaction and rota flexibility. Six months into the project, she is both
exhilarated and, one suspects, battle-scarred. Pisani says: “I have had children crying
and complaining about the food. It is harder than adult customers. They come in the line grumbling because it is fresh fish for lunch and not fish fingers. But the teachers are bril- liant. They tell the children they should see what they eat at other schools.”
Tower Hamlets LEA Tower Hamlets introduced new MSC-certified salmon products on menus at 110 schools in East London. MSC salmon fillets in vinegar- infused tempura batter and piri piri MSC
32 | The Caterer | 31 July 2015 Oily fish
●●Oily fish contains long-chain omega 3 fatty acids which may help prevent heart disease.
● ●It is a good source of vitamin D, although our bodies make most of it from sunlight. Vitamin D is important to regulate calcium and phosphate, which helps to keep bones healthy.
● ●Some oily fish (whitebait, canned sardines, pilchards and canned salmon) contain bones you can eat – which help keep our bones strong because they are good sources of calcium and phosphorus.
● ●Tuna only counts as an oily fish when it is fresh or frozen – the omega 3 fatty acids are removed during the canning process.
salmon fillets, from Crown Foods and Feldt’s Seafood respectively, were launched at Bygrove Primary School in April. Crown Foods’ mascot “Suzy Salmon” encouraged pupils to try sustainable fishy tasters. The MSC provided its Fish and Kids materials in the dining hall and handed out teaching resources and activity sheets. Stefanie Siebels, of the MSC, says: “It is
great to see Tower Hamlets responding to a general shift towards using more plain fish products as a healthier option for children.” Steve Logan, quality assurance and perfor- mance development officer for Tower Ham- lets, says: “We want to get pupils eating more oily fish, expand our range of sustainable fish
available to our school cooks and introduce delicious salmon fillet recipes.” James Rasor, product and quality assurance
director at Crown Foods, says children’s feed- back on oily fish suggests it can be unappetis- ing for younger palates due to its strong taste. “To combat this, we launched MSC salmon fillets in vinegar-infused tempura batter and MSC tempura battered salmon and sweet potato fishcake products,” says Rasor. “Both high in omega 3, we have paired prime MSC-certified salmon fillet with inno- vative flavours to provide flavours that are attractive to a younger audience, while still offering the wealth of natural properties found in oily fish.”
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ANDREW AITCHINSON
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