Marco Pierre White planning school dinner overhaul

18/10/2011 16:00:00

As celebrity chef Jamie Oliver prepares to launch his second manifesto for better British food, his contemporary Marco Pierre White has developed a rival plan to help the UK government improve school dinners.

Whitehall memos, obtained by the media through a Freedom of Information request, show the Michelin-starred chef has been meeting with politicians in a move that could create contract catering jobs across Britain.

In a private meeting with education secretary Michael Gove last year, Marco Pierre White is thought to have outlined a scheme that would see catering professionals taking head chef jobs alongside the school cooks.

"One or two primary schools would be chosen to pilot the scheme, as Marco saw it as essential to engender a passion for food at a young age," stated a civil service memo about the meeting.

Since his first school dinners campaign in 2004, Jamie Oliver has led a range of initiatives designed to improve the food prepared by those in contract catering jobs at UK schools.

Posted by Daniel Caggoull

Contract catering jobs in the UK

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