Four Week Rolling Winter Menu
As we move into the Autumn, it is once again time to change from our Summer Menu to our Four Week Rolling Winter Menu. With our delicious home-made vegetable soups and pasta sauces and the return of many of the children’s favourites such gobble gobble pie, salmon and tuna bakes and mackerel fish cakes.
In honour of this changeover, we thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to introduce you to our amazing and hard working children’s chefs. They each do a fantastic job of preparing our delicious healthy meals, low sugar puddings, soups, pasta sauces, bread, rolls, and low sugar cakes and biscuits which are prepared from scratch every day. Our menus are all based around the Mediterranean diet.
Willow Cottage has a rich history of prioritising nutritious home cooked food. Something we are very proud of.
Ciprian has been the chef at our Farmoor setting since 2014 and is an integral part of the nursery team.
He is a brilliant chef, makes a fabulous Chicken Curry and is famous for his Moroccan Lamb. Ciprian is passionate about cooking for the children and making sure they are well fed with delicious, fresh cooked food daily. He also loves to have fun with the children.
Ciprian is great at supporting the team with the cooking activities, giving tips and ideas and popping the creations in the oven for us!
We love taking our prospective parents into the kitchen, he is an active part of our show-rounds. He is passionate about explaining our menus and the importance of food at Willow. He, as with all the chefs, is a valuable part of our team.
Lorraine is the chef at our Eynsham setting from Monday to Wednesday. Lorraine’s preparation skills and organisation in the kitchen are fantastic.
Her attention to detail, particularly for our children with dietary requirements, is greatly valued.
Like all our cooks, Lorraine is very passionate and the children love her food.
When we recently received our Food Standards review, Lorraine was very proud to continue our 5 star rating. She has a robust knowledge of food hygiene procedures and she follows them meticulously.
Willow Cottage’s home made pizzas have featured as a favourite on the children’s menu for many years. Lorraine’s pizzas are the best and often feature at staff meetings too!
Donna is the chef at our Eynsham setting on Thursdays and Fridays. She has recently transferred from our Bletchingdon kitchen and she is also a fantastic support as our bank cook, moving to the other settings to help out where needed. Donna’s passion for serving the best Willow Cottage menu to the children each day is greatly appreciated as well as her flexibility to support at all three nurseries.
Donna brings her passion to cooking with her and works to a very high standard in all areas of her work. Donna’s meals always look and taste amazing and go down very well with the children. The children love all the food Donna prepares. They particularly love her fish pies and lasagnes. Donna has brought some great ideas to Willow Cottage from her previous experience, knowledge and passion in catering.
Lorraine and Donna work on different days but they work very closely together, bringing continuity and ensuring the food they deliver is to a high standard.
They both make lovely homemade bread and rolls, low sugar biscuits, scones and our signature blueberry muffins.
We feel very privileged to have two such passionate, hardworking chefs at the Eynsham setting. Thank you both for your continued hard work!
A very warm welcome to Liz Wooloff. Liz has joined our Bletchingdon team following Linda’s relocation down South over the summer. Liz has come to us after working for 15 years as a Catering Manager and Trainer in primary school kitchens which were awarded the gold Food for Life standard with the Soil Association. The Soil Association is the UK’s leading membership charity campaigning for healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use.
Liz has already become a very valued member of the team, both staff and children have said that her meals are delicious and although she has only been with us a short time she has made the kitchen her own.
Willow Cottage has been serving up delicious, healthy and nutritious home cooked food since it opened many years ago. We have won awards for our menus and the way we incorporate our food understanding and handling skills into our provision.
A huge thank you to Ciprian, Lorraine, Donna and Liz for everything you do to as such a valuable part of our team.
