While the English are not gastronomically eminent among the nations of
Europe, they are attaching more and more importance to kitchen work,
especially in schools, in which lies the chief hope for the cooking of
the future.
This growing interest was illustrated by the Conference on Diet in
Public, Secondary, and Private Schools held in London in the last
week of May, 1912. Prominent experts made addresses, discussing
the question of school diet from various points of view. The "Daily
Telegraph" of May 30, in concluding its account of the Conference, made
some remarks which are quoted herewith, as they give a vivid glimpse of
the admirable culinary work that is evidently being now done in English
schools:
"Of recent years more and more attention has been paid to the dietary
in schools, and the general teaching of cookery will help on an
improvement in a department of social life in which we are behind our
Continental neighbors. Happily, there are a considerable number of
schools in which the menus are drawn up on well-ascertained principles,
including the element of variety. Here is an example of dinners served
at a large school at 8d. each to over 100 children. It is chosen from
those used from May 13 to May 17: