a child-friendly cook who seeks to make meals delicious

More than 6 million children and adolescents eat their meals in school canteens every day. To welcome them: canteen managers, who are cooks adapted to their audience. Guillaume Delsaux is a canteen manager at the Maurice Genevoix high school in Bressuire in Deux-Sèvres: “We have an audience of young children and teenagers. So we cook in a way that is adapted to their needs and in a balanced way. But be careful, even in a canteen, we can make gourmet cuisine!”

Guillaume Delsaux talks about daily life in his canteen on social networks, where he has tens of thousands of subscribers. His ambition is to raise the bar for school meals. It is the municipalities that manage the canteens for primary schools and the regions for high schools and middle schools, but they can call on private companies. A meal costs between 2 and 5 euros depending on the parents’ income.

As for food, it must be balanced and varied. The law also requires 50% sustainable products on plates, including a fifth from organic farming, and at least once a week a vegetarian menu. Not easy to implement for communities. Some have chosen to produce their own vegetables. Gilles Pérole is deputy for education in Mouans-Sartoux, in the Alpes-Maritimes:“We have 3 farmers who produce 26 tonnes of vegetables each year within a 3 kilometre radius of our kitchens. This allows us to have vegetables that are ripe and do not spend days and days in the fridge before being consumed.”

Around a hundred municipalities in France now have their own municipal farm. They held their first National Meetings last June in Mouans-Sartoux. Mouans-Sarthoux which has just obtained this week the title of French capital of bioversity for its commitment to environmentally friendly food.