This is a post I wrote back in February and somehow lost. It was only yesterday that I re-discovered it, posted as an extra “page” on the top of the blog. Not at all where I wanted it. So here it is for your delectation – it came out of my post about our cooking class at a primary school in Clermont Ferrand.
I remember a few things from my school dinners – in primary school,(in the late 60s) I distinctly remember grey, shoe leather liver in gravy (which I think put me off liver for life) and a very glutinous shepherds pie (which I loved, by the way!). And of course, a tray sponge with pink icing and pink custard. I’m not sure that there was much concern about nutritional values, but certainly there was no choice, and no foods like burgers or pizzas. There may have been “beefburgers” but certainly no buns. And probably no chips either. There was also an eat-everything-on-your-plate policy – which for the liver must have been a nightmare!
In secondary school (1972-1978) the choice was better. I think there was a choice of two main courses, but I might be wrong. Again, we were expected to eat everything we were given, but we could ask for a small portion. I somehow ingratiated myself wioth the dinner ladies and so would often get extra big helpings of chips or something else, if I asked!
From time to time, the Headteacher would sit at a table with some of the fifth formers or sixth formers and so we were expected to be on our best behaviour, and make polite conversation. Everything was served from serving dishes, instead of queuing up for it. I remember when it was my turn, I had taken a rather large helping of sweetcorn (which I had never tasted) and discovered that I really, really didn’t like it. However, there was no choice but to choke my way through it, as leaving it would have been frowned on.
When I was in sixth form, there was a nod towards the fact that some people didn’t want a large hot meal at lunch time, and the sixth formers were allowed to choose soup and a filled roll if they wished to.
On my post about the Cooking Class I went to, someone remarked on the choices at the Restaurant Scolaire, run by Fabrice, our instructor. The school is a private one, so perhaps their menus are a little more elaborate than the public schools, but even so, here is a menu from the state school system. This is a primary school menu:
That first day – smoked salmon, hamburger with foie gras, chips!! However, I highly suspect that the two “Surprise menus” at the end of the half term would be made up from whatever was left in the fridge/ freezer! The state says that every week there must be a vegetarian day, and there is pressure for all produce to be local, seasonal and organic.
This is a menu from a Lycée (secondary school), with each day providing a starter, a protein, a vegetable, a dairy choice and a desert.
I do have to say, I have no idea what school meals are like in the UK. They may have improved enormously, but I doubt if they are this good. Certainly when I was teaching (1982-2000) school kitchens were being phased out, and everyone bringing packed lunches was the norm. For those poor souls who were entitled to free school meals, they got floppy sandwiches with processed ham, or cheese, a bag of plain crisps, a biscuit and a piece of fruit (usually a brown banana or a soft apple) all put in a plastic bag and allowed to sweat until lunchtime.
This is a recent primary school menu from the UK, which shows a big improvement from what I remember, and which, to be fair, has a vegetarian option every day, but all the same it doesn’t strike me as being quite as “adult” as the French menu
and one from the US
Certainly, it’s good to see no liver on the menu, even if they are both serving pizza and baked beans at least once!!
Fabrice explained that they are trying to guide the students to consider their food as a pleasure, something to be savoured, so that they want to learn how to make it themselves. He said that they even make their own in-house tomato “ketchup” instead of buying sachets of ready made stuff. I noticed at the French school, is that the crockery is proper crockery, the glasses are glass, the cutlery is proper, paper napkins are provided. It is much more “grown up” than the plastic trays found in UK primary schools, which, I’m afraid, make me think of prison!
View from the Teapot 
That was so interesting to see what was served in the different schools! When I went to school (in Sri Lanka), there were no school lunches; we had to bring a packed lunch from home. When my daughter went to school (in the US), she preferred to take a packed lunch from home, because she didn’t like the school meal options. She would, however, occasionally, buy a breakfast.