"Oliver's Kids Don't Want More" bellowed "The Sun" earlier this week, offering a Dickensian twist to the story of healthy school meals. Apparently two-thirds of British children don't like the new school menus and want a return to turkey twizzlers, chicken nuggets and chips.
"OK", I thought to myself, "why not?" "I'm not going to cook anything that looks or sounds like a twizzler, but what's wrong with chicken nuggets and chips?"
The answer to this question is, of course, that the version our schoolkids are used to is made from totally crap ingredients and usually badly cooked as well. Last night I quite fancied a well-balance plate of protein, carboydrate, fat, vitamins and minerals in the form of this old school favourite. I had a vacuum-pack of chicken mince in the fridge, so I thought I'd see if I could improve on the British schoolkid's favourite lunch, using the skills I've learnt since I started to train as a professional chef.
I cheated, of course. Nuggets are thickly battered, and this raises the fat and carb content without adding anything of quality. You get an idea of just how much fat is normally present from this piece in the "Norfolk Eastern Daily Press". A teacher in Thetford has become a shining ambassador for healthy school dinners after shedding eight stones - almost half of his body weight - in the space of ten months after participating in the new school meals programme.
So I changed the nuggets to mini-burgers made with turmeric and coconut, using a modernised recipe. I rolled the patties in a little polenta as a way of making the surface texture crunchy without using batter. I even managed to find a way to introduce a much-loved Japanese ingredient into my British dish. The result was chicken burgers and chunky chips with wakame and spring onion mayonnaise. I'll publish the recipe with photos in my recipe section shortly. This is how it turned out.
My dad paid me the compliment of saying he thought they were the most tasty burgers he had ever eaten in his life.
"OK", I thought to myself, "why not?" "I'm not going to cook anything that looks or sounds like a twizzler, but what's wrong with chicken nuggets and chips?"
The answer to this question is, of course, that the version our schoolkids are used to is made from totally crap ingredients and usually badly cooked as well. Last night I quite fancied a well-balance plate of protein, carboydrate, fat, vitamins and minerals in the form of this old school favourite. I had a vacuum-pack of chicken mince in the fridge, so I thought I'd see if I could improve on the British schoolkid's favourite lunch, using the skills I've learnt since I started to train as a professional chef.
I cheated, of course. Nuggets are thickly battered, and this raises the fat and carb content without adding anything of quality. You get an idea of just how much fat is normally present from this piece in the "Norfolk Eastern Daily Press". A teacher in Thetford has become a shining ambassador for healthy school dinners after shedding eight stones - almost half of his body weight - in the space of ten months after participating in the new school meals programme.
So I changed the nuggets to mini-burgers made with turmeric and coconut, using a modernised recipe. I rolled the patties in a little polenta as a way of making the surface texture crunchy without using batter. I even managed to find a way to introduce a much-loved Japanese ingredient into my British dish. The result was chicken burgers and chunky chips with wakame and spring onion mayonnaise. I'll publish the recipe with photos in my recipe section shortly. This is how it turned out.
My dad paid me the compliment of saying he thought they were the most tasty burgers he had ever eaten in his life.
As I was finishing this posting I heard on the radio that a young girl died tragically today in Castleford, West Yorkshire, apparently after choking while eating a school lunch. All my thoughts go out to her family and friends.
2007 and moved to Spain, where I trained in Barcelona at Carles Abellan's Comerç 24 (which won its first Michelin star) and Martín Beresategui's Lasarte (which won its second Michelin star) and was chef de partie and later Pastry Chef to Paco Morales at the amazing hotel restaurant Ferrero in the Valèncian mountains. This Spring I returned to London as part of the team of celebrated Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes, opening East End restaurant Viajante. I'm still working with food, but taking a break from fine dining. Passionately pursuing my life-long ambition to become a top-class chef and, one day, a world-famous restaurateur.
2 comments:
How times change. Schoolkids used to starve, now they become obese. What a strange world we inhabit!
The burgers look great and the mayonnaise looks fantastic. Please post a recipe.
Thanks. Recipe coming soon.
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