School Dinners

 When most of us look back to our childhood, our times at school are some of the most memorable. School is where we first properly experience friendship, academia, social divides.....and canteen food. 'School dinners' seem to have developed an infamous reputation for many generations, whether that be for the quality of the food itself or the regimented manor in which we had to consume it. As we began primary school at an age where most children had become very particular about their likes and dislikes, the food offered in school dinners was completely unacceptable. I personally remember sitting on a cold seat, eating luke-warm 'spotted dick', and being shouted at by the head dinner lady "Less talking, more EATING!". A very scary experience indeed. But I suppose it was never as scary as poor Oliver's experience..

  However some have fond memories of school dinners. In this article from the Guardian, Javaria Akbar recalls her memories of canteen food, and why the Asian flavours in her home diet made her crave the creamy stodge of school dinners:

"I know it's unfashionable to stick up for school meals but as a British Asian growing up in a household where kebabs and curry were the norm and shepherd's pie and rice pudding were alien entities, I have very fond memories of my school dinners. Everything we ate at home was jazzed up Pakistani-style - even omelettes had dried chilli, coriander seeds and turmeric in them. It was eating at school that taught us about traditional English food; the good and the bad. It was exciting to have buttery mash and a pie for lunch instead of a fiery dopiaza, and fun to eat jelly and ice cream for dessert instead of sipping milky cardamom-infused tea. School meals were the definition of exotic. I didn't want a schapati and lentils; I wanted lancashire hotpot. It may not have been sensitively prepared by artisan chefs, but it had gravy in it."

Despite bad experiences with the food served at primary school, I remember learning a lot about food during my time there and being encouraged to learn about food and share tastes with other students. 

When I was in year four, our whole school created our own cookery book. We all drew a picture of our favourite meal, and all of the teachers added recipes which we created illustrations for. We were all given a bound and laminated copy to keep, and I still refer to it every so often for a cooking idea, and it's enjoyable to see all of our ideas of what our favourite meal was ('chocolate biscuits' being the most questionable!).