A table for two please
T
here’s a place in my village where lots of people go for lunch. I’ve never been there myself but the way people leave chatting in groups, looking satisfied and well-set up for whatever the coming afternoon holds seems to indicate that they’ve eaten well. The menu, which changes every day, looks good with lots of fresh salads and vegetable and the
prices are very reasonable. So why haven’t I been yet? Well, I’m just a smidgen too old because, for those of you who haven’t guessed yet, the eating place I’m talking about is the lunchtime canteen of the local primary school. If ,as I suspect, many of the people reading this are products of the fatty spam, lumpy mashed potato and bullet peas era of British school dinners, French school dinners will be a revelation. The idea that school dinners are not necessarily a throat clenching ordeal, dolloped onto your enamel plate by grim-faced dinner ladies behind a serving hatch will perhaps come as a surprise. It needs to be acknowledged that school dinners in the UK have recently improved
considerably (thank you, Jamie Oliver). In France school dinners were first formally regulated in 1971 and an updated set of regulations came into force a year ago. These require that each meal contains a protein element with accompaniment, for example rice or a fresh vegetable, a dairy product, plus a starter or dessert. In many schools the norm would be a simple starter, usually some form of salad, a main course with accompaniment followed by cheese and/or dessert which is often fresh fruit. The same dish should not be served more often than every 2 months. On every 20 meal cycle there must be at least four meals of “quality” meat, four of “quality” fish and other days the protein should be in the form of eggs, cheese or offal. It might seem surprising that schools do not make any provision for pupils to bring
a packed lunch, but since in France the midday meal is very much the main meal of the day a packed lunch would be verging on the unthinkable. This means that, in primary schools at least, there is a simple choice-pupils either eat a full school lunch or they go home to eat. The school lunchtime experience is not simply about food since in primary schools in particular great attention is paid to the social aspect of eating together and learning to behave in a civilised manner at the table. Children usually eat in table groups with at least one adult with them, all start to eat at the same time and they do not leave the table until everybody has finished. During the meal they are expected to converse sensibly and to be considerate to their table companions. It’s no wonder that parents moving to France from other countries notice a marked improvement in their children’s social skills and, understandably, their eating habits. One mother moving to France from Canada was amazed that her rather picky and unadventurous children, accustomed to a child-centred diet of bland food suddenly began to eat at school such “adult” foods as calamari. It was, she realised, simply because this was the accepted norm and all the other children ate what was put in front of them without question. “Their eating habits,” she says “were transformed virtually overnight and they began to eat things their father and I would think twice about” So what is the response of the paying public, the pupils and their parents? Parents report that while children still complain about individual dishes which they don’t like “there are very few moans” as one parent said. An Anglophone mother of two teenagers at school locally commented, “it gives me a real feeling of satisfaction knowing that the meals are so good-they get four courses, which always include a salad, a protein and vegetable, cheese and either fruit or a dessert.” An informal poll carried out among schoolchildren themselves showed that the favourite main course is steak and chips! (There are regulations limiting the serving of deep fried food so chips do not appear often) Other top 10 favourites include paella, moules and cheese souffle! The cost of this cornucopia also helps to 24
keep complaints to a inimum-school dinners usually cost somewhere between 3€ and 7€ with a wide range of concessions depending on family circumstances. The fact that meals are a set “formule” with a set charge minimises uncertainty and spiralling costs, as well as making sure that children get a balanced meal. A recent trip to my village school canteen revealed that the week’s menu, displayed so that parents can check what their children are being offered featured, for example, oeufs mimosa (an egg based starter), lentilles vinaigrette (lentils in a dressing) paupiettes de veau forestiere (veal parcels cooked with mushrooms), tagine d’agneau (a north African dish consisting of spiced lamb, vegetables, chickpeas and cous cous) and peche du jour, sauce d’aioli (fish of the day with garlic mayonnaise) Several of the dishes were indicated as being organic. The young male assistant who supervises lunchtimes very efficiently reported that all children try all dishes, although if there is something they particularly don’t like, they don’t have to eat it. The food is freshly prepared from scratch by a traiteur and delivered daily. As I took my watering mouth home for lunch the good old standby of home-made soup with baguette somehow lacked its usual appeal! Trish Walker