Pupils’ chutney gets praise from Jamie
CULINARY superstar Jamie Oliver has praised chutney created by youngsters at their school, which is being sold at a Welsh centre of excellence. Pupils at Ysgol San Sior in
Llandudno turned windfall apples from the school orchard into the no-cook chutney and sent a jar to the cooking wizard to try.
He tweeted that it was “beautiful” and the school has now been named School of the Month on his Kitchen Garden food education website.
The enterprising Ysgol San Sior youngsters have sold dozens of jars of the chutney - made to a secret recipe of head teacher Ian Keith Jones - at Bodnant Welsh Food Centre in the Conwy Valley, and are now planning to make more to meet demand.
Head teacher Mr Jones said: “The chutney recipe was one I was given years ago when I worked at a butterfly centre in
Anglesey, and I make it each year. The best thing is that it doesn’t involve cooking, as the ingredients sit in their own juices. The children collected apples from the school orchard, and we bought a few more, as well as new jars and lids. The other ingredients are onions, sultanas, dates, ginger and brown sugar. We took advice from the Food Standards Agency about hygiene and labelling to make sure we had everything right.
“We are the first school in Wales to join Jamie’s Kitchen Garden education project, which includes online resources for teaching staff to help children learn how to grow food and to cook nutritious meals. We were delighted when Jamie sent us a message on Twitter saying he thought the chutney was beautiful, and added a kiss - for the children that really made a difference.”
The profits from the chutney and egg sales at Bodnant are ploughed back into the school’s educational budget.
Bodnant Welsh Food Centre managing director Chris Morton said: “We aim to showcase the best of Welsh produce - and this is one of the best chutneys I’ve tasted, and certainly ranks alongside the others that we stock on a regular basis.”