Francois Strydom, who previously worked at a Jamie Oliver restaurant, has been busy educating the children about healthy eating and food provenance.
Strydom is responsible for serving hot and cold nutritious and seasonal meals to nearly 300 pupils including 100 boarders. In addition to managing a team of seven, Strydom is responsible for organising and overseeing food workshops with pupils, enhancing the food offering, mentoring his team and running hospitality services at the independent girls’ school.
Commenting on his appointment, Strydom said: “My vision for Queen Mary’s is all about keeping the food healthy and the children interested. I have a great passion for teaching young chefs the art of cooking and the importance of food provenance.
"My father is my biggest inspiration as he is the one that taught me how to cook, butcher and prepare produce and I want to pass this on. This is why I have been working with the children to get them interacting with food, so they have been helping me out in the kitchen by making things like courgette brownies.”
Ronan Harte, managing director of Holroyd Howe, added: “At Holroyd Howe we specialise in serving food that is fresh and seasonal and appealing to children. With Francois’ background he is perfect for the role and his passion and enthusiasm will not only enhance the food offering at the school but will help to demonstrate the importance of food and the role of nutrition to the pupils.”