Oakham School has ‘hotel standards’ for its food

A busy team of chefs and catering staff serve up around 2,300 meals every single school day at Oakham.

Pupils can choose from a wide selection of food, much of it sourced locally, which is all freshly cooked on the premises.

The food on offer at the start of the day ranges from fruit, cereal, yogurt and a full cooked breakfast with favourites such as lasagne and chicken pie served at lunch and supper. Menus often include exotic dishes such as farmed kangaroo steaks and Nile perch.

Meals are served in the school’s Barraclough Dining Hall, which is open 15 hours a day 7 days per week. Once they have chosen their food, pupils can sit with friends to eat in a convivial and civilised atmosphere. Staff also eat in the Barraclough and they are always on hand to make sure pupils sit down, eat and recharge their batteries.

“We want to break away from the school meals label” explains Oakham’s Catering Services Manager Andrew Keenan. “We are very enthusiastic that our customers, the pupils, should enjoy their dining experience here. Consequently we are always looking to update the food we offer. We strive not to produce food that is ‘good for a school’ we strive to produce ‘Good Food’ without any caveat. When we were awarded the Hotel and Catering International Management Association’s prestigious “Hospitality Assured” we were the only school ever to have achieved such recognition. It is an award usually accredited to hotels, conference centres and private hospitals.”

Andrew Keenan leads a team of 55 full and part-time catering staff who produce some half-a-million meals every academic year.

From breakfast, through to lunch, match teas, House snacks and then dinner there’s always lots of choice for pupils.

“We have a sandwich bar, a pasta bar, a daily of choice of different hot dishes, a salad bar, a daily hot vegetarian dish – the list goes on and on. We want to make sure there is something for everyone and we’re constantly thinking of new dishes and new ways of presenting our food”.

Outside of formal meal times, pupils can have snacks and drinks in 'Stumps', an all day café based in the cricket pavilion. There are also facilities within the Houses for pupils to make themselves snacks.