School dinners: Love them or hate them

Bad memories of school dinners still affect the eating habits of many adults, a survey suggests.

Many still refuse to eat certain foods or even look at them after being force-fed at school, according to the poll of over 2,000 BBC Good Food magazine readers and users of the website Friends Reunited.

Half of those questioned who cited school meat as a problem had become vegetarian as a direct result of their canteen nightmares.

Being forced to eat their school dinner was endured by 53% of those polled.

The top 10 hate list Tapioca Cabbage Overcooked veg Lumpy mash Lumpy custard Liver Semolina Gristly meat Blancmange Beetroot

One in three said they had come up with ways to get rid of their meal when the dinner ladies were not watching, such as wrapping it in a hankie, dropping it on the floor or putting it on someone else's plate.

Tapioca, cabbage and overcooked vegetables were the most hated school dinner dishes, with lumpy mashed potatoes coming in at number four.

Other foods which brought back nightmare memories included spam fritters, blancmange and macaroni.

But for television chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, memories of unpalatable school dinners make him all the more determined to encourage people to enjoy their food.

"My mission to get people to buy good quality meat is partly the result of my experiences at school where overcooked, bland, disgusting meat was common," he said.

TV chef Sophie Grigson added: "The watery, overcooked, rank-smelling grey cauliflower they served up in the lumpy wallpaper paste that masqueraded as cheese sauce was (and still is) my idea of lunchtime torture!"

The top five favourite school dinners were fish and chips, ice-cream, sponge pudding, jam roly poly and jelly.

What are your memories of school dinners? Have they put you off certain foods for life?

The dinner ladies used to love me as I always asked for more! Jennie, UK

I think I must be one of the rare people who only remembers school dinners as being delicious! I particularly remember the beef stew with carrots and creamy mashed potato they served up at my primary school - the dinner ladies used to love me as I always asked for more! I loved the custard too.....maybe my school made good dinners! Mind you, it might just be me as to this day I'll eat anything...even the list of hated foods was making me hungry just now..!
Jennie, UK

I still can't even stand the smell of sage and onion stuffing. I had packed lunches and the teachers would come round and check your lunch boxes to make sure you'd eaten everything, so we started stuffing things into our thermos flasks, until they caught on!
Paula Smith, England

Mashed swede... the mere thought of it makes my stomach turn!
Russ, Canada

It's ok for those who only had to eat school meals at school. My mum was a school dinner lady so I got school type meals at home as she cooked the same way at home.
Andy B, UK

I will never forget the teacher who made me eat fatty grisly meat at junior school. Perhaps I should thank him on this my anniversary of 20 years being a vegetarian. I hope that school meals have improved because I am starting teacher training in September!
Johnmark, UK

My favourite dinner was baked fish and peas Julie Simpson, England

I hated lumpy mashed potato and have been put off all mashed potato for life. I really enjoyed everything else about school dinners and still do as a primary school teacher. My favourite dinner was baked fish and peas followed by chocolate rice crispies with green custard.
Julie Simpson, England

I went to school 50 years ago in Kea, Cornwall. I loved the roast potatoes, but hated the cabbage and ground meat. The latter was glutinous! For dessert, spotted dick was a favourite. I remember the dinner ladies with much fondness.
Katrina Kneebone, Panama

I must have been part of a very lucky minority - school dinners in the Pendle area of Lancashire in the early '60s were, in nearly all cases, quite edible.
John, Norway

It was just after the war, and school dinners consisted mainly of stodge. The food was cooked and delivered to school in vacuum flasks, and served by the monitors. The price of the meal was 1 shilling, which consisted of meat and three vegetables, and a pudding. Invariably the meat was fat and gristle, and the vegetables overcooked, custard lumpy and roly-poly that could anchor a boat.
Carole Morgan, Australia

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