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Passionate about Food and Nutrition

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To say we are fortunate to have fantastic chefs is definitely an understatement. Leanne originally joined the Lakehouse team in 2011 and help set up the kitchen at Stationhouse. In 2015 she began managing a much larger kitchen at Gordano School to broaden her knowledge in nutrition for older children before re-joining us in February 2020, following the retirement of our lovely chef Wendie. Leanne comes with a wealth of catering experience. She has worked in high-end restaurants and hotels across Bristol and managed the fine dining and brasserie restaurant at the University of the West of England. In 2004 Leanne was awarded the ‘Ethic Chef of the Year’ by Tilda which gave her the opportunity to work in the Savoy in London for the weekend, taking part in the Craft Guild of Chef’s annual conference and dinner.

Leanne has the incredible skill of producing healthy, flavoursome, restaurant quality food that tantalises the taste buds of the under 5’s and us too.

Leanne and her assistant Kia prepare nutritionally rich meals from scratch every day and ensure each dish is beautifully balanced for children’s growing brains and bodies. A lot of thought and planning goes into our weekly menus so the children have the opportunity to try new and exciting flavours and textures. Our meals are free of artificial flavours, and are low in salt and sugar. Our menus are created each term and are on a 3-week rolling rota so we can take full advantage of fruit and vegetables that are in-season.

We provide breakfast, a two-course lunch, a two-course tea and two healthy snacks throughout the day, all freshly made onsite. For babies we make our own fruit and vegetable purees, so you just need to bring your baby’s milk if they still have breast or formula milk.

The chefs are very creative at catering for any allergies and dietary requirements your little one may have, most of the time managing to make their meal look the same as everyone else’s. We work with families to learn about the food they have at home and make the most of any opportunity to introduce new foods and meals to our menus. Taking into consideration families heritage we often have theme days to celebrate our diverse community and as an opportunity to experience new flavours and tastes.

We source our meat locally from the Butchers’ Block on the high street, and as a company we try to be as sustainable as possible and keep our carbon footprint to a minimum.

Mealtimes are an important part of our nursery day where we try to create a homely, social dining experience. The team sit with the children during mealtimes and we all eat together. This is a great opportunity to discuss the ingredients and what they enjoy, role modelling manners and using cutlery whilst conversing about the day. We also bake a Birthday cake for children when they are at nursery on their special day, so they can blow out a candle with their nursery friends.