Delicious, healthy dishes created by four state banquet chefs for elementary school lunches will be introduced next month on television and the Internet, according to the ROC Ministry of Education Nov. 27.
The 52 creative dishes cooked up by the chefs will be shown on Public Television Service, Chinese Television System and Taiwan Indigenous Television starting Dec. 1 for use by parents and school cafeteria staff countrywide. Recipes will be posted on the MOE’s i-Fun Learning network, as well as on the educational resources sites under city and county governments.
These nutritious, five-star quality school lunches cost an average of just NT$35 (US$1.20), said Wang Chun-chuan, director of the MOE Department of Physical Education. “Just looking at the menu makes my mouth water,” he added. “I really want to try the soy milk hot pot and malt sugar chicken.”
Taiwan’s school lunches made international news in May when 9-year-old blogger Martha Payne of the U.K. complained that she was still hungry after lunch at school, and posted photos of what she considered better meals, including one from Chiayi Municipal Jiabei Elementary School in southern Taiwan.
“Our lunches are priced at only a third of the cost in the U.K.,” Jiabei Principal Cha Hsien-liang said. “We appreciate the compliment from abroad, and we’ll keep doing our best to provide tasty, sanitary meals.”
The MOE will continue to provide guidance on school lunches, including subsidies for more nutritionists and renovations of kitchen facilities, Wang said. (THN)