Barry Comprehensive School

Food glorious food

Jamie Oliver's latest series on Channel 4 has attacked school kitchens for serving fatty processed foods. If you watched the series you may be surprised at what is on the menu at Barry Comprehensive School.

All lunch-time meals are prepared on site from fresh, locally sourced ingredients. A choice of dishes, all with fresh vegetables, is available, along with freshly made soups and a very popular range of filled baguettes and flat breads. A salad bar and fresh fruit completes the menu.

The dedicated kitchen team is led by Sharon Hutcheon, whose knowledge and skills are the result of more that twenty years in the catering industry. Ably supported by Jane Pitman and Ian McCarthy, Sharon is promoting interest in food by marking calendar events like St Patricks Day and Chinese New Year with special dishes from the originating countries and introducing students to a wide variety of cuisines.

Recognition of the value of nutritious, tasty food is not limited to the school kitchen. GNVQ Hospitality & Catering is a very successful course at the school and covers all aspects of food preparation and kitchen hygiene in a very practical hands-on way. This kind of course may once have seemed unusual to offer at an all-boys school, however male role models in the industry now abound. Ian McCarthy, for example, joined the school kitchen after a 22 year career as a Navy chef serving aboard a number of frigates and survey vessels.

The popularity of celebrity chefs on television and the growing public debate about children's health is keeping the subject of food in the headlines and we are confident that it will remain at the top of the menu at Barry Comprehensive.

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