‘Let them eat snails’ - French chef ’s call to cut obesity

● Berkmiller says schools should grow their own veg and serve molluscs

French chef Fred Berkmiller is calling for foods such as snails and fish heads to be served at schools across Scotland as a way for ministers to show they are serious about a pledge to combat obesity and make the country a truly “good-food nation”.

Mr Berkmiller runs two Edinburgh restaurants – L’escargot Bleu and L’escargot Blanc – and gets his snails from the Isle of Barra.

He believes the molluscs should be eaten in schools nationwide and wants imported, processed or deep-fried foods such as nuggets and chips to be replaced by fish heads.

Mr Berkmiller says pupils should grow vegetables and keep poultry at schools, which should each have a proper kitchen and a chef to help children learn how to eat healthily and sustainably.

Speaking as the Scottish Government began a consultation on its diet and obesity strategy, which includes plans to curb supermarket promotions on foods high in fat, sugar or salt, he said: “In the old days we had chefs or cooks buying raw ingredients and cooking proper meals for kids at school.

“Now we come across far too many youngsters and adults who have no experience with food except the regular bland sandwich, the chippy or chicken nuggets.

“Why haven’t Barra snails reached the local school yet? Or fish heads, which are thrown back into the sea? We are facing maybe three generations, grandparents, parents and children, who do not know how to cook. How can we create a nation of food and drink when people have no clue? Schools have to step in. We could easily have a vegetable garden in every school, run by the pupils who could keep chickens and learn to cook them too.”

Berkmiller recommended an old Scots recipe for fish heads, which involves stuffing them with less popular “but tastier” brown crab meat, before steaming them in the oven.

Wild snails were “extremely nutritious, organic, sustainable, flavoursome and free, if you pick them yourself”, he said, with “easy” recipes including snail tartine, combining the molluscs with fresh vegetables and herbs and serving with bread.

He backed criticism by Nourish Scotland, the food justice charity, which said the gov-

0 Scottish schools are being urged to serve snails instead of chips ernment’s approach to its Good Food Nation pledge – to make the country’s bountiful larder accessible to all – had focused on multibillionpound exports of produce such as salmon, while many Scots were obese or becoming obese because they could not or did not eat fresh local produce.

About two in three adults and one in three Scottish children are obese or overweight.