Nursery Food: NW Award Winner - Recipe for success

Tootsies Private Day Nursery was a double winner at this year's Nursery World Awards. As well as picking up the Nursery Food Award, for the second time, the Farnham-based provider also came tops in the Community Support category.

Responsibility for delivering top-quality food and promoting healthy living at the company's two nurseries lies mainly with husband and wife team, chef Tristian and area manager Jo Strover.

Tristian, can you tell me about your career and average day?

Tristian I've been in catering since I was 17 and worked all over London in large blue-chip companies. Then I moved to Tootsies four years ago.

I start work at 6.30am and on an average day I make about 100 breakfasts, including freshly baked bread or bagels, as we're open from 7.30am, 160 lunches for children and staff, 160 teas and snacks three times a day.

I also prepare dishes for children with allergies or particular diets. We have quite a few that eat a vegetarian or mainly vegetarian diet. This can mean up to six varieties of protein being used in any one day to cater for the varying diets. In addition, I make about six home-made pureed dishes for weaners, taking account of what parents want. Then I do prep for the meals and bread for the next day and go home about 4.30pm.

How do you deliver top-quality food?

Tristian Everything is made from scratch and meets the Voluntary Food and Drink Guidelines for Early Years Settings, so is low in sugar, salt and fat and free from preservatives and additives. Where possible, ingredients are seasonal and sourced locally, as we like to support other local businesses, and some of our fruits and vegetables come from a local organic farm.

Menus rotate over a four-week cycle, we always have a vegetarian option and everything is well presented. So, today's stew was topped with a 'pastry' made of sweet potato, cream cheese, eggs and flour and cut into the shape of little men.

Generally, we like to combine firm favourites with dishes that offer variety. Part of this is about making things that are often seen as unhealthy, healthy. We have a sausage machine, so we can know exactly what is going into our sausages. The bread for our beans on toast is home-made as are the beans, and we've even sourced hoop-shaped pasta for our homemade spaghetti.

Jo This combination is a good way to make children feel relaxed and willing to try new foods. It's also family friendly, doesn't alienate parents and leaves them willing to try our recipes at home. We want to meet the needs of the individual child, but it's not just about the child - it's about the whole family being healthy and encouraging good eating habits.

What is your approach to mealtimes?

Jo We feel that meals should be social occasions, so the children sit in small groups around a table and chat. Our staff are sensitive when dealing with children's eating habits and dietary requirements and set a good example by eating with the children and modelling good table manners.

No child is expected to clear the food from their plate, and if a child is upset at mealtime we remove the plate without any fuss. Slow eaters aren't put under pressure to finish meals, and children who don't eat their main course are still offered the choice of pudding and an alternative healthy food after the meal so that they don't go hungry. We also make sure that children with packed lunches join in the positive mealtime experience.

The older children serve themselves and help clear up. We find self-service, and sitting in small groups, is a real plus. It gives the children control over how much they want to eat and the confidence to try new foods. Initially, one boy ate only chicken but each day added a little more to his plate and by the end of three weeks was eating everything on the menu.

How do you educate children about food and healthy living?

Jo Our children are involved with every aspect of food. They learn a lot from our snack and mealtime routines and we also give the children a say in menu planning. Every fortnight we give the older children a colour-coded grid (showing starchy foods, fruit and vegetables, protein, dairy and drinks) and food pictures and ask them to place a food that they would like in each category on the grid.

Tristian We've also started doing 'build your own pizza' once a month. I part-cook 130 pizza bases and provide eight to ten fillings for the children to choose from. We then label the trays and cook the pizzas for lunch. It's chaos, but amazing how it encourages them to try new things. Olives and boiled eggs were a real hit!

Jo Preparing food is part of our daily routine and the children always cook for a purpose, rather than for the sake of it. So, for example, they might cook the sweet potato men that were the topping on today's stew. They also get involved in growing vegetables in the nursery garden, as do parents. One open morning on Father's Day, dads helped the children in the garden and made sausage rolls together.

How do you work with parents?

Jo We find out about a child's preferences and dietary requirements before they start nursery, and put in place a risk assessment and dietary plan if the child has a food allergy. Once in nursery, we give parents regular feedback about their child's diet, and staff are always on hand to advise families on child nutrition and support parents of 'selective eaters'.

We welcome parent feedback on our menus, which we display on our noticeboards and share via social media sites. Where families give their children packed lunches, we do insist that they abide by our healthy packed lunch policy.

We share recipes with parents through our recipe book, making sure that the ingredients are easy to find and reasonably priced, so that all our families can try the dishes if they want.

Family involvement is really important to us, so we do a lot with parents at the weekends. Last weekend, we did a 90-minute session when four families made buttered chicken curry, rice and home-made naan, then went next door to enjoy the meal together.

Tris is always there on open days and also does cookery demonstrations, which draws a bigger crowd, and we use these sessions to teach parents cooking skills and tips of the trade, such as how to fillet a fish.

If parents make our tomato sauce that's full of vegetables rather than just buying a jar of ragout then we'll be happy that we've been able to make that one small change.

Can you tell me about staff training?

Jo We feel staff involvement is crucial to the success of our food and healthy eating ethos. Our in-house training looks at areas such as food preparation, nutrition, taking a positive and sensitive approach to mealtimes and liasing with parents on food and supporting them with 'selective eaters'.

Recently, as part of an evening training session, we looked at portion sizes. I asked everyone to set out what they thought was a child's portion for breakfast, lunch and snack. Then I asked them to add water to their portions, mash it up and to spoon it into a latex glove that was made to about the size of a child's stomach. It was good fun and really showed them how much a young child is able to eat.

Is your community work linked to food?

Jo We do lots in the community, particularly with the Farnham Foodbank. We do collections for it, Tris did a night run to raise money, and in the summer we hosted a tea tent for it when bands were playing in the park. But it's not just about raising money; it's also about raising its profile.

Some of our families have benefited directly from the food bank by being referred to it, while others now volunteer. We hope that through supporting the food bank, the children will be sensitive to others' needs and grow up to become positive members of their community.

Other events we get involved with include the Farnham Food Festival, where we served up about 3,000 samples of child-friendly food in one day!

So, what is next 'on the menu'?

Tristian We're always experimenting and trying new things. If you never introduce anything new, then that's all the children will accept, so you have to keep moving forward.

And it means we can stay a step ahead of the competition. We like a bit of competition. We don't like being left behind - you're never going to be known for being second best.

Nursery World's Nursery Food Award was sponsored by Kellogg's. Look out for details of next year's awards at: www.nurseryworldawards.com.