After over 46 years nourishing, fuelling and feeding young people, a legend of school catering – Adrienne Williams – is taking a step back later this year as she embarks on her well-deserved semi-retirement. Currently Head of Catering at the biggest school in England, Adrienne first started out in hospitality as an 18-year-old where she fell in love with cookery.
“I was blessed to be a young mother so I began working in cafés and pubs out of necessity to ensure there were nappies in the house and food on the table”, Adrienne reminisces. “It was very much learn-on-the-job, but gave me a great foundation in
the kitchen.”
Adrienne pivoted into education in 2000, initially becoming a foodservice assistant at a local primary school before becoming an assistant cook at a school where Turkey Twizzlers were the order of the day.
It was time to turn the school around
“The school I moved to was in a dire state and when the head cook left within two weeks of me arriving, I was thrown in at the deep end. It was a huge challenge, but I turned it around completely. This is where my passion for providing the best quality, home-cooked school food really exploded. It was around about the same time that Jamie Oliver kicked off his own school food crusade. He was a massive inspiration and I really believe he was instrumental in the improvements we now see and take for granted.”
After this impressive turnaround, Adrienne went on to become catering manager for a small group of schools before joining Robert Clack in 2020, where she formed a mercurial working partnership with former colleague and close friend Wendy Honey. Situated in Dagenham, Robert Clack is the biggest school in the UK. Adrienne, Wendy and her team are responsible for feeding 3,300 pupils aged from four to 18 across three different sites.
We serve around 2500 meals a day…
“We serve around 2,500 meals a day including breakfasts, snacks at first break, lunch and after school clubs. We have three catering managers and around 35 team members. We try to tempt the students with new dishes and they’re definitely not scared of global flavours. We ran bao buns on the menu recently and they went down a storm.”
“We cook as much from scratch as possible and my key role is the development of the menus, which is something I will continue to do in a part-time capacity. We have a lot of the classics and healthy options, but we do mix things up. We have a roast dinner
every Thursday, which is a special treat for the kids.”
“We use a wide range of products from the Country Range portfolio including Sweet Chilli Sauce, Cocoa, Chopped Tomatoes, Long Grain Rice, Mild Cheddar, Part-Baked Baguettes and Cooking and Baking margarine, which is simply the best. The quality is top notch and the whole range provides great value, especially considering the budget constraints we have to work to.”
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