Jon Knight, co-founder of Original Fry Up Material (OFM), will be cooking up school dinner classics with a street food twist, showcasing how McCain Foodservice frozen potato products can work well for school cooks and street traders alike during the July 5-7 Lead Association for Catering Education (LACA) Main Event at the Education Catering Exhibition in Birmingham, England.
Knight and McCain will be offering samples of four new street food-inspired dishes over the course of the show, including a recipe from the winner of this year’s One Pot Meal competition.
While serving the school foodservice market is quite different from the street food scene, where OFM specializes in menuing all-day breakfast items, burger and chips from a 1981 converted St John’s ambulance, folks engaged in each sector must meet many of same operational needs to succeed.
“I imagine that running a school kitchen presents the same kind challenges, but on a completely different scale,” said Knight. “At a festival, people are happy to queue for 10 minutes. You don’t get that luxury in a school. School caterers need to work with products that will hold well under heat and stand up well to batch cooking, which is why we’re using McCain products.”
At the LACA the McCain Simply Range in four different dishes, two break time snacks and two main meals, will front and center.
“We wanted to make sure each dish had the big flavors and street food style feel that have made the sector so successful, but is also nutritionally balanced and lean. Working with the McCain Simply range has helped us deliver on both fronts,” said Knight.
Alongside highlighting the versatility of McCain products, Knight hopes that introducing a street food dimension will get both caterers and kids alike excited about school meals.
“It’s a great way to generate excitement around food,” he said. “Food shouldn’t be just for fuel, that’s not a good way of viewing what we eat, and I think street food inspired options could really provoke a great reaction and love of food within kids. It is time to bring the concept of street food into the school kitchens across the UK.”
