Behind the scenes
Q&A with Amber Francis
Head Chef and Food Educator Amber will take part in the finals of the BBC’s Great British Menu.
Alongside working incredibly hard to improve food culture and delivering nutritious and exciting meals to the students every day, Amber has made it through to the finals of Great British Menu and we’re so proud that she’s putting school food on the national agenda.
We recently caught up with Amber about the day-to-day, as well as her experience on the BBC show whilst she prepared the lunch service at our partner school, Christ’s College Finchley:
What is a typical day like for you here?
One day is never the same at CCF – we have a really varied menu and so each day looks slightly different, depending on what we’re serving the students at that time.
But in general we come in, we check all the deliveries – fresh fruit and vegetables every single day – get all those away, get the veg washed and prepped and then it’s a case of bringing everything together. Cooking fresh sauces, making fresh, hot snacks for the students every day.
And then the best bit, which is service!
Where did you work before coming to Christ’s College Finchley?
Before coming to schools, I worked in hotels and restaurants in fine dining. I was really lucky to work in some amazing places but wanted a little bit of a change.
What made you decide to become a Head Chef and Food Educator in a school?
The main reason was wanting to align my full-time job with my morals and ethics. I was doing a lot of community work alongside working in restaurants but it just wasn’t fulfilling me in the way I wanted it to – I wanted to be more involved in communities and so that’s why I made the move to work in a secondary school.
What’s your ‘Try Something New Tuesdays’ initiative all about?
It’s all about getting our students to be really engaged with the food that they’re eating. Trying something different that they wouldn’t have either the opportunity to, or the bravery to eat. It’s a really fun way to engage with students on a one to one basis, or small group basis, and find out what they do and don’t like. It’s one of the few situations where, if a student says they really hate something, it’s the best we could hope for!
Because actually, what that means is that they’ve tried something, they’ve been brave and we can have a conversation about what they don’t like and why. It’s a really exciting opportunity for students to get involved but we also have loads of staff get involved every week as well.
How’s it been going – have you seen any big changes in the students?
We’ve seen a massive change in students since starting Try Something New Tuesdays. The engagement with our salad bar has been huge. I’m actually cutting some Marinda tomatoes here and this week they were available to try on Tuesday and they’re now going on the salad bar this week. We’re getting a lot more brave students coming up and trying those foods.
What would you say is the most rewarding part of the job?
Definitely the engagement with the students – again whether that’s a negative or positive. – it’s all about getting teenagers to analyse what they do and don’t like about food and getting them to understand what they’re putting in their bodies and why.
What’s your favourite dish to make for the students?
There’s so many amazing dishes that we make for the students. As I said, we change our menu really regularly so every half term is a different menu. This time around, I really love what I’m making today, it’s a mezze plate so we have everything from halloumi couscous to olives, pitta breads, artichokes and we make our own hummus. It’s like a Try Something New Tuesdays but on a bigger scale and it’s just a load of different exciting things for the students to try.
What do the students love the most?
The students still love chip day the most…there’s no getting away with that! But we have real success with our butter chicken curry day. It’s a recipe that another Chefs in Schools colleague came up with. It’s a firm favourite with students and teachers alike and some teachers have asked to take some home to their families, so it’s a big success.
Some people have a negative view of school food and school chefs – what would you say to them?
Often it’s quite an outdated view. Historically school food wasn’t something that we invested in or really took much time to think about. I’d ask them to question what do they want their children or the next generation to be eating. I think we can all agree that we want the future generations to be fed really well, really nourishing, healthy, exciting food, and that’s really what we should be pushing for. So any outdated food of sloppy, powdered mash potato or jelly on a plate – we can do better than that now.
What’s it like being on Great British Menu?
Great British Menu was an absolute whirlwind. I loved being a part of it! It’s such a creative environment to be in and you meet some incredible chefs. But what was really special for me this time around was representing the talent that we have in school kitchens across the country. We are just as creative and as inspiring as chefs in Michelin starred restaurants or fine dining restaurants. It felt like something that was a lot bigger than just me doing it, it was talking about a bigger picture and that was really exciting.
How did it feel to have the students involved?
It was one of the real privileges of competing in this series. It was so amazing to be able to show the students creativity and flair, and get their ideas involved in different ways. So whether that was playing music to present alongside my main course or creating marbled paper so that I could talk about my inspirations. It was just a really special moment to have them involved.
What’s the one thing you hope people will take away from watching the show?
When watching this series, I really hope that the public sees the real variety of talent and chefs within different sectors of the industry. Not just in fine dining but public sector catering, schools, hospitals, prisons – wherever! There’s a hugely talented workforce that is often underrepresented.
How did you come up with the menu for Great British Menu?
Coming up with the menu is a real challenge – it’s part of the fun of a series like that. You have to be really creative. I think for me, talking about Great Britons, the most important thing was really ascertaining what inspired me as an individual. And that’s where the dish focused on Hannah Moore really came into its own, my dessert. Hannah Moore was someone that really inspired me as a child, my primary school was named after her. It really felt like a full circle moment to be able to talk about a woman that was so pivotal in education in the UK, but also tie together food and education in my own little story – so that was really special.
Catch Amber Francis on the Great British Menu finals – starting Monday 24th March at 9pm on BBC Two.