Setting kids up for success: National Restaurant Awards partners with Prept
Previously Table Talk Foundation, the fast-growing food education charity collaborates with top chefs to deliver classes in primary schools and secondary schools.
Founded in 2020 by Daniel Wade, Tom Surgey and Jessica Aggarwal, Prept has close links with the hospitality industry and works to promote restaurants as a viable and exciting career path in tandem with its mission to help kids learn about the importance of good food and how it reaches the table.
“We all have a big passion for hospitality and the industry has supported us from the very start,” Aggarwal says. “The National Restaurant Awards is therefore a great fit for us and will help us extend our reach as we look to take Prept nationwide.”
The charity – which operates a state-of-the-art training kitchen within Plumpton College in East Sussex - was established in response to the ongoing scaling back of food education in schools and other educational settings and the commensurate rise in childhood obesity and other diet-related health problems.
One in five 10-11-year-olds are now classed as obese with children living in deprived areas twice as likely to be overweight than those in more affluent areas.
Over the past few decades, most primary and secondary schools have cut back on food education and have in many cases shuttered training kitchens.
“We all have young children ourselves and have been disappointed to see the lack of emphasis on food education. Cooking is a fundamental life skill and it’s also important that we teach kids healthy eating habits,” Aggarwal continues.
Prept sponsors a full-time chef to run The Royal Academy of Culinary Arts' Adopt A School programme introducing kids to tastes, skills and hospitality, helping them to learn fundamental life skills and develop healthy eating habits.
There are four classroom sessions: Taste and Sensory; Knife Skills (using plastic serrated knives); Bread Making; and Front of House.
“For Front of House we split the class into groups and ask each to create their own restaurant,” Aggarwal explains. “We have managers, people taking orders and chefs. A lot of the children we are reaching have never even been to a restaurant. They absolutely love it.”
Chefs Glynn Purnell and Kray Treadwell cook at a Prept fundraising event
Prept’s about-to-launch Secondary School programme, meanwhile, supercharges the school curriculum with the charity’s chefs ‘inspiring students to cook and offering a real pathway into the diverse world of hospitality’.
“The Secondary School programme is currently in a pilot phase, with full roll out next year,” Aggarwal continues. “We have created sessions for all year groups and are also to work with schools to create bespoke programmes that take into account what has already been taught and what facilities are available.”
Prept’s partnership with National Restaurant Awards is primarily about awareness but the charity is also looking to collaborate with the chefs and restaurants that feature on the top 100 list.
“We’re always looking for chefs to get involved by coming into schools, cooking at our fundraisers or helping us with our social media content,” Aggarwal says. “We’re also on the hunt for Prept Partners who support us in our vital work by adding a small amount to their guest’s bills.”
For more information about Prept’s charitable work click here. To follow the charity on Instagram click here.
