There is a vicious conservatism about the peer pressure kids experience at school and it hits home most significantly when it comes to the food they eat at lunchtime.
Quite simply, when it comes to food kids mimic each others' bad habits. If you pack your little darling off in the morning with a carton of organic yoghurt, a pair of folded tortillas filled with grilled chicken, red onions and tomatoes, and a drink of sugar-free cordial, your intentions are good but probably ineffectual. You may be the greatest cook and the most serious food lover but creating little foodlovers is one of the hardest tasks on the planet.
Hazel Bourke, chef of Assolas Country House, near Kanturk, Co Cork, has a five-year-old daughter, Emma, now entering her second year at school. At home, Emma loves tuna or smoked salmon sandwiches but she never eats these at school "because they smell".
She appeared, at one time, to have accepted grapes as part of the lunch box but then it seemed these were in fact being traded with other children, who also traded Emma's home-made lemon juice. Hazel found this out when Emma mentioned: "Mummy, my friends don't like your lemon juice".
So Emma now eats Nutella sandwiches on white squidgy bread, commercial fruit juice and sometimes some yoghurt. Brown bread comes back home uneaten. These are the compromises familiar to every parent, myself included.
The only thing remotely healthy Emma will accept at school is home-made lemon cake. Hazel makes two types of lemon cake - a sumptuous Madeira cake with a lemon syrup and a quicker version with more sugar. Emma prefers the quicker one. We have all been there.
"Peer pressure dictates everything," says Brid Torrades, chef at Collooney's Glebe House. "At home they will eat goat's cheese and things like that but in school it must be ham sandwiches, plastic cheese and always square bread. Occasionally I make them flapjacks or banana bread but then it's usually the friends who eat those!"
Sabine De Mey, chef at Blair's Cove restaurant in west Cork, has two children. "Ann (13) never eats anything all day. David (12) eats sliced pan with processed cheese triangles. But he does eat dill pickles." Some consolation, anyhow.
This sobering picture was a commonplace with all those we talked to: children, young or older, who show an adventurous spirit at home suddenly go all shy in front of their friends. "It's their first experience of peer pressure," says Gerry Galvin, chef of Galway's Drimcong House. "Anybody who has anything unusual is going to stick out."
If there is a solution, it seems to lie in two directions. Firstly, don't get annoyed because your lovingly concocted and elaborate lunch box comes back untouched. Kids, it seems, are determined to choose what they want to eat at school. Derry Clarke, chef of Dublin's L'Ecrivain restaurant, has an eight-year-old daughter, SarahMay. "She asks for what she wants," says Derry Clarke. "She loves bread and jam and I'm happy for her to have that. She'll have a yoghurt, apple or banana, milk, and a bar of something. It has to be shop bread, though she will eat brown bread, but no crust."
Gerry Galvin reckons: "The whole process of educating children is allowing them to make their own choices. I know that, at the end of the day, ours have come through - two have good palates and are sensible and one is a disaster."
But if they will, at least, eat what they themselves choose, then it seems that some gentle subversion is the best way to actually get decent food - food which has the vital nutritional element - into the lunch box. Eugene Callaghan, chef at Rosslare's La Marine restaurant, has tried with his twins, Emma and Sarah, over the past six years. "Having twins is interesting because, while one was into food in big way, the other one wasn't. The one who wasn't, however, is now eating fish and proper cheese."
Eugene Callaghan achieved this by "gentle encouragement. Initially I would try to dissuade them but there is no point in going against them, you have to use persuasion. So, I would use Wexford Vintage Cheddar, rather than plastic cheese and would put that in a sandwich. We would also make up tortillas at home to give them fun and encouragement. Barbecues and parties are great for introducing things to kids, simply because they will try more. This translates later into school lunches, when they will eat pitta bread and tortilla chips."
For older kids, the solution which Gerard Galvin came upon may just be the thing to wean teenagers away from the processed, freezer-to-microwave food, now sprouting up in every convenience store in the country: "As they got into their early teens, we had an arrangement with Silke's delicatessen, in Galway, that they could get what they wanted and that was usually a deli sandwich. That was the best arrangement because they felt a certain freedom. All they had to do was run up a bill."
Indeed, most people's experience is that if you simply give children a daily allowance, they will spend it on junk. So, if they insist on making their own choices, then at least if, like Galvin, you can influence the outlet from which they shop, you can score some sort of a victory. And, finally, it is wise to remember the advice of Eugene Callaghan, who says: "Have a good larder at home. If they see you eating different foods then, at some stage, they will ask to try that. And give them something when they get back home. We give the twins cream-cheese dips with grissini sticks as a treat when they come in from school."
Simple school lunch ideas
The first two delicious ideas are from Brid Torrades and they give children good bread and biscuits which are nutritional. Younger children can be persuaded to eat the biscuits if you involve them in cooking them during the weekend, which they will love.
Banana Bread
250g (9oz) very ripe bananas 1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup water 1 egg
225g (8oz) flour
225g (8oz) brown sugar
25g ( 1oz) wholemeal flour 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 25g (1oz) chopped nuts 25g (1oz) sultanas
Preheat the oven to 150 C/325 F/Gas 3. Blend together the bananas with the oil, water and egg. Mix together the dry ingredients and fold in the banana mixture. When well mixed, place in a loaf tin and bake immediately for one to one-and-a-half hours, until cooked (test with a skewer).
Honey and Oatmeal Biscuits
225g (8oz) butter
225g (8oz) castor sugar
225g (8oz) plain flour
225g (8oz) porridge oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons honey
Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add all the dry ingredients. Add the honey mixed with a tablespoon of hot water.
The mixture can be rolled into a log and kept in the fridge, cutting slices for cooking when the oven is on or they can be rolled into balls and baked for approximately 15 minutes at C/300 F/Gas 2, until golden. Cool on a wire rack.
Muesli biscuits
Suggested by Rosarie O'Byrne of West Cork Herb Farm, these biscuits come from The Book of Biscuits by Pat Alburey (Mirehurst Press). Have fun making them with the kids at the weekend and, if stored airtight, you have the use of them all week.
175g (6oz) butter 100g (3 1/2 oz) caster sugar 100g (3 1/2 oz) honey Finely grated peel of one orange 1 egg 55g (2oz) self-raising flour Pinch salt 350g (12oz) meusli
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C/425 F/Gas 7. Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in the honey, peel and egg. Fold in flour and salt, and finally meusli until you achieve a soft dough. Roll out on to a liberally floured surface to 5 mm (1/4 inch) thick (you will need to liberally flour the rolling pin, for the mixture will be quite sticky). Cut biscuits into 6cm (2 1/2 inch) rounds. Place on a baking sheet - use a palate knife - and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool.
California dreaming
Readers may recall our article on the brilliant baker, Steve Roland, earlier in the year. Roland has just opened the California Cafe and Bakery in Bantry, Co Cork, which will be good news for the parents of the thousands of school kids in the town, who should each open an account with the cafe and direct their little darlings there every lunchtime, for cool food and chill-out sounds. Here are some clever ideas from Roland for knockout sandwiches.
Red Onion, Tomato and Spiced Beef with Herb Cream Cheese
For each sandwich:
2 slices whole-grain bread or sour- dough rye bread Slice spiced beef Several thin slices red onion Herb cream cheese Vine ripened tomato, thickly sliced Salt and pepper
To make the onion milder, cover it with cold water and refrigerate for 15 minutes to half an hour, or even overnight. Spread the cream cheese thickly on the bread. Arrange the spiced beef, tomato and onion slices over the cheese. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and cover with the second slice of bread.
Grilled Chicken with Red Onions and Pesto
This sandwich works best with a herb focaccia bread.
Brush some of red onion with olive oil and grill until just soft. Marinate a chicken breast in two tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of lemon juice and a tablespoon of oregano for 15 minutes. Grill the chicken for four minutes on each side. This can be done the night before and the ingredients held in the fridge.
When you are ready to make the sandwich, spread the focaccia bread with some basil pesto. Place the chicken on a chopping board and carve with a sharp knife held at a 45 degree angle. Carve the chicken crosswise into quarterinch thick slices. Place on the bread, add the onions and a handful of mixed greens.
Herb Cream Cheese and Cucumbers on Toast
Steve makes this concoction on single slices of toast but for a lunch box, you would need to sandwich the ingredients between two slices. Cream cheese is often an acceptable alternative to most children, and herbs are a great source of iron - a mineral lacking in many a child's diet.
Whole-grain bread
Cream cheese 3 tablespoons chives, sliced into narrow rounds
Cucumber, very thinly sliced
Salt and pepper Spread the bread thickly with cream cheese. Sprinkle the chives over the cream cheese and lay the cucumber slices on top, overlapping one another. Finish with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Tomato and Pesto Sandwich with Mozzarella
This sandwich takes very little time to put together. It works well with a baguette.
For the pesto:
One-third cup basil leaves, chopped 6 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons Parmesan, grated
3 tablespoons walnuts, chopped 1 clove garlic, sliced Salt
To make the sandwich
fresh mozzarella tomato, thickly sliced
salt and pepper
olive oil
Put the basil in the blender with the olive oil, cheese, walnuts and garlic. Blend until smooth then season with salt. This can be made in advance and stored in the fridge for up to four to five days.
Slice the baguette lengthwise, spread on the pesto. Add the fresh mozzarella, sliced tomato, a touch of olive oil, salt and pepper.