9:00pm Tuesday 30th June 2009
By Tom King
A CLASS of budding Jamie Olivers exchanged school blazers for chef’s hats and aprons when they took a behind-the-scenes peek at Southend’s Toby Carvery.
Year 4 students from Prince Avenue Primary School were invited to the carvery at the Bell in Prince Avenue. The main purpose of the visit was to help them discover more about the journey made by vegetables from the farm to their fork.
As part of the two-hour interactive session, the class learned about the importance of eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, the nutritional content of vegetables, and where and how vegetables grow.
The session then became pracitcal as they learned some of the numerous ways to cook vegetables.
They then took part in blindfolded taste tests of a wide range of vegetables.
Finally, pupils were treated to a carvery demonstration by Toby’s in-house master carver Mitchell Wooding, before helping themselves to a carvery meal complete with an array of fresh vegetables.
Teacher and trip organiser Amanda Pottle, said: “The children absolutely loved the chef school.
“They’ve learned a great deal about the importance of eating freshly prepared vegetables and gained a real insight into how the restaurant works.
“One of the highlights was watching the pupils enjoy their greens during the carvery meal, with many trying vegetables they had previously professed to dislike.
“With what they’ve learned today I’m confident the children will continue to tuck into their five-a-day when they get back to school and at home.”
Sheelagh Pegg, operations director at Toby Carvery, said: “We are committed to encouraging children to eat a healthier diet, but we also realise that can be quite difficult in practice.
“A traditional roast meal is a simple, tasty way of incorporating those all-important five portions of vegetables, which is why we serve a selection of eight vegetables every day.”
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