First class cooks get recognition

First class cooking skills lie at the heart of Enfield Council’s schools catering services.

Eleven members of the council’s catering staff recently completed their NVQ Level 2 catering course which helped them to understand the importance of a well balanced diet and introduced them to new recipes and methods for preparing nutritious tempting dishes for pupils to try.

Cllr Glynis Vince, cabinet member for education, children’s services and youth, said, “Staff showed enormous commitment going to Southgate College after preparing meals for their schools and not actually leaving the college until 9.30pm.

“Their desire to learn more and ensure that they can prepare excellent meals for our schools is well-recognised. They deserve our praise and thanks for all their hard work.”

Enfield’s catering services share in this commitment, and offer the City & Guilds National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level 2 Award in Professional Cookery on an annual basis to all employees who wish to progress.

Catering manager, Carrieanne Bishop, said, “This is a demanding course requiring staff to reach high standards in the planning, preparation and cooking an extensive range of foods.

“All staff on the course had to demonstrate their cooking ability and their understanding of nutrition, taste and sourcing good ingredients. They have achieved this level with flying colours and are a credit to our service.”

Cllr Vince added, “We are proud of them and all our Healthy Schools. We are leaders in this field meeting both government standards for school lunches and enabling our cooking staff to provide an excellent range of healthy and nutritious menu choices to school pupils of all ages.”

Peter Lewis, director of education, children’s services and leisure, said, “Hearty congratulations must go to our staff, who, after a tiring day in the school kitchens put in the extra effort to gain this qualification. It is through their dedication that we can create such a great service.”

Enfield’s Catering Services recently launched another qualification, the City & Guilds Level 1 Award in ‘Providing a Healthy School Meal’.

This course ensures that all levels of staff are fully aware and understand the importance of a healthy well balanced diet and are able to encourage pupils to try the range of dishes on offer.

It will be offered to all schools in Enfield that use the council’s catering service. Catering Services employees and the school lunchtime supervisory assistants will be encouraged to provide a ‘whole school approach’.

This document was last updated on 2008-11-14 15:04:38 published by the Communications team. Document Reference:LBE_133543