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Chef inspires couple to move into school dinners business full-time
Grace Hammond A pub that made school meals as an experiment in Jamie Oliver's televised quest to improve children's diets, has moved into the education market full time.
The King's Head, in Theddlethorpe, Lincolnshire, was beamed into the nation's living rooms earlier this year when it took part in a scheme thought up by the celebrity chef.
In Jamie's Return to School Dinners, the pub – run by husband and wife Phil and Maureen Cross – agreed to make meals for pupils at a school which had no dinner service of its own.
But it closed its doors to punters last Tuesday after the couple decided their business would make more money by concentrating on the initiative full-time.
Mr Cross told Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine: "We did a financial overview of the whole business and the accountant told us we were losing a fortune as a pub."
The enterprise now has four local schools on its books and turns over around 6,000 a month.
The pub's four drivers now deliver 1,000 meals a week, but the couple say they want to move into bigger premises in the next fortnight and take on six more schools.
The Crosses say they cook all the meals themselves. Mr Cross added: "Jamie told us his recipes were idiot-proof and he was right."
The couple said Oliver was now planning a return
visit with the cameras to check on their progress.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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