Nicole Pisani used to work in a celebrated London restaurant; now she cooks couscous and preserved lemons for 500 children at primary school in Hackney. They love it – but questions remain over whether the model can be replicatedIt’s 10.25 on a Tuesday morning and Elizabeth,who has been a school cook for 30 years, is deftly peeling and stoning an entire crate of avocados without lifting her eyes. On the other side of the kitchen, or piles of pineapples and melons are being chopped and threaded on to wooden skewers; tray upon tray of chicken and portobello mushroom pies are browning in the ovens and huge pans of corn on the cob with ginger butter are bubbling on the stoves.
Pretty pots of pickled vegetables are being prepared for the tables; trays of living pea shoots and cress are chilling; in the fridge there are cartons of edible flowers. Amid all this culinary glamour,I fill a job of my own: to prepare fresh pollock fish fingers, rolled in Chinese five spice, and oats and breadcrumbs,which will be served with seaweed.
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Source: theguardian.com