Nottinghamshire County Council chefs prepare for festive period

Nottinghamshire County Council’s 300 school chefs have been rolling up their sleeves this month as they prepare to serve up around 54,000 Christmas dinners to primary school children across the county.

During December, they’ve been baking, roasting, sautéing and steaming enough mouth-watering traditional Christmas fare for 54,000 primary school pupils and 12,000 secondary school students.

Coun Sheila Place, personnel committee chairman, said: “Locally bought products and ingredients make up between 70 and 80 percent of what you’d find on the plate of an average school dinner.

“Sourcing locally helps to support East Midlands and Nottinghamshire farmers and suppliers, providing a boost to our economy and reducing food miles.

“This year our turkeys have been roaming freely in neighbouring Lincolnshire and the majority of our potatoes were grown in Nottinghamshire.”

Across Nottinghamshire in the run-up to the end of term, school chefs, helped by their assistant cooks and catering assistants, will be roasting 6,000 kg of turkeys and over 28,000 chipolata sausages, baking hundreds of mince pies, cooking nearly 7,000 kg of roast potatoes, steaming around 4,000 kg of Brussels sprouts and carrots and preparing just over 4,000 veggie Quorn roasts.