It seems there’s no stopping the ‘Prince George effect.’ Products worn by the four-year-old Prince sell out in a matter of moments, and the news that he’d be attending school at Thomas’s Battersea saw a spike in interest for properties in the area. Now, it seems that young George is influencing the way we eat too, as the recent press interest in his school dinners has caused a surge in demand for one particular health food.
Earlier this week, it was reported that dishes on the menu at Thomas’s Battersea included a fish option of ‘baked smoked mackerel on a bed of puy lentils.’ Since then, lentil growers have apparently experienced a major boost in demand for their product.
‘It’s the star effect – as soon as a VIP is linked to a product,’ Antoine Wassner, head of lentil firm Sabarot, explained to French paper L’Express. ‘We’ve had high demand from clients in Britain since the [original] Daily Mail article, notably from restaurants.’
‘Maybe the trend won’t last on the other side of the Channel. But with the vogue for being vegan, we’re hopeful,’ he added.
Puy lentils are grown in Le-Puy-en-Velay in France and are a protein-rich, budget-friendly option, despite being produced in relatively small quantities. ‘We grow them at an altitude of 1,000 metres in a zone that gets a wave of heat that comes up from the south every June,’ said Franck Rocher, chairman of the Puy lentil producers’ association. ‘The plants ripen very quickly, which means the skin is very thin and the lentils are not at all floury.’
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Other options on the sample menu at Thomas’s include ‘free range chicken minced chilli con carne with organic grated cheese and cucumber batons’ and ‘freshly prepared three bean ratatouille.’ There’ll also be a salad bar and soup of the day on offer for pupils, which certainly puts the standard school fare of jacket potatoes and pasta bake to shame (that’ll be the rumoured £18,000 per year school fees in action…)
The three-week menu cycle at the school is repeated once and changes with the seasons. ‘We recognise that a balanced diet stimulates the brain, improves concentration, helps the children to study and assists with memory,’ reads the schools website.
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