Catering cook creates memories for Clawdd Offa pupils

A Prestatyn cook is stirring up a school dining hall filled with healthy food, a dash of learning and many bowls full of smiles and laughter.

Cooking up 30 years of experience in the catering world this year, Carol McWilliams is busy creating tasty delights for the pupils of Ysgol Clawdd Offa.

County Voice dropped into the kitchen at the school to find out what inspirations are in Carol’s recipe book for progressing in catering and to find out the secret ingredients for a happy food fulfilled school of pupils.

Born in Manchester, Carol with her family moved to Rhyl when she was seven years old and 20 years ago she moved over to Prestatyn.

She said: “I did catering in college, I’d always worked in cafes part time. I worked in the Russel café in Rhyl, liked it, went to catering college at Coleg Llandrillo, did a course on hotel keeping and catering which is everything from making beds to cleaning toilets, right the way through to running a hotel.

“The Catering course covered all aspects of catering from cooking to waiting on and at that time I did prefer waiting on. After college I went to work down south to High Wycombe in a large conference centre, waiting on there."

The lure of home life soon tempted Carol back for a new slice of career and she travelled back to North Wales to work for a while for McDonalds to continue honing her trade.

Carol said: “Then I heard about school catering, went for it and I’ve been in this profession ever since… I’ve been 30 years in the service now and I love it."

Rewinding the school cooking timer to the start, Carol began at Ysgol Tremerchion looking after 60 pupils which she admits was a great training ground to get used to timings for preparing, cooking and serving the food for the children.

She then moved on to making sure the children of Ysgol Bryn Hedydd, Rhyl, were well fed and happy through the school terms for 17 years before moving to Ysgol y Llys and then arriving at Ysgol Clawdd Offa in 2017.

Looking back, Carol explained: “It’s a great way to start off and then you progress to a bigger school because you are given that opportunity here. The bosses are great, they encourage you into getting additional qualifications and if you want to move up and progress, you have that opportunity to move to a bigger school.”

Catering in schools also cooks up a good work life balance dish according to Carol for anyone with busy families be it humans or a loving home of animals.  

She said: “It's just a great place to work, especially if you've got a family, not many people who work in catering can say they are off every school holiday. I get up early to feed all the animals because I’ve got four dogs, two birds, two snakes, two rabbits, crested gecko, tortoise, bearded dragon… I feed all those first!

“Then I have a coffee and I’m set for work and in for eight o’clock, I do all my morning food safety checks, set up the kitchen ready, looking at the menu, seeing what’s on for today, looking at what I can prep for tomorrow as well.”

Standing in the beating heart beat of the school kitchen facilities, Carol demonstrates how forward thinking her role is by showing how the prep is done for the day after’s lasagna on the menu with just the fresh sauce to do to go on top.

Thanks to the efforts of Carol and her team there’s always a feast of choice on offer to suit all young appetites each day as well as the main dish delights.

She explained: “There’s always a choice, there’s the two hot main courses, jacket potatoes with a choice of fillings and a selection of sandwiches. We also cater and prepare a selection of meals for the children with allergens, intolerances and special care needs to make sure they are catered for.”

The busy prep and cooking of catering is all worth it though as Carol admits seeing the children smile and laugh at lunchtimes lights up the catering team’s day.

“The Pupils are great, no two days are the same, every day we have a laugh at something they’ve either said or done but its always with them not at them… they are fabulous.”

Throughout the year at school the pupils have themed learning and Carol and her team have put their own thoughts and ideas together to carry the education and the fun into the school dining hall.

“We do theme days, we have one a month, we’ve just done the Chinese New Year in cooperation with one of the school's teachers, she very kindly brought in some Chinese decorations for me to use, I had some at home, so we decorated the serving counter to make it more fun for the pupils.

“On the menu that day we had chicken chow mein and spring rolls, along with chicken curry and rice and for dessert we did a golden crispy cake as well, it was lovely. The pupils loved it, especially seeing the counter decorated it makes it more special for them.”

Working in the school catering service also gives Carol and her colleagues the chance to input into how the daily school menus are designed across Denbighshire.

She explained: “The management team create the menu, we are due to change to a new 3-week menu starting from Easter. They work with the cooks and discuss what goes well and what changes can be made and take feedback on board before the nutritional content is then balanced and analised in line with Welsh Government Healthy Eating in School regulations. We’ve just been informed the new menu has gained Gold Accreditation approval from Welsh Local Government Association.”

To support healthy eating, along with all the main course choices, the catering team offers a selection of fruit, yoghurt and salad to go with the sandwiches and jacket potatoes. 

With the kitchen full of tempting smells, the big question is, what’s the dish of the day for Clawdd Offa pupils?

Smiling, Carol said: “They love the curry here, they love katsu curry because it’s a chicken goujon with a homemade katsu curry sauce and rice - it's lovely, very simple to make but really tasty and the pupils love it."

That’s something Year 6 pupil Ralph can confirm and who admits he’s a big fan of Carol and her team’s skills…especially when he’s hungry.

Ralph, a big fan of the catering team, let County Voice know: “The katsu curry, I love that. The staff are really nice as well, instead of making it a boring dinner they make it, so you are excited actually to go.”

Going back to the school cook’s 30 years of experience in the catering field and still cooking up delights for many youngsters, what’s Carol’s advice to anyone wanting to follow in her footsteps and develop with the support of the Catering Service.

Taking a second to think in her kitchen, Carol put forward: “It’s just having the love for people and food…and it’s having that passion to feed school children a choice of healthy, nutritious meals and encouraging them to try new things.“