Spaghetti, beef sirloin in cream sauce, and "chicken cutlets" – these are the three most popular school lunch dishes among children in the Czech Republic. Traditional dishes with sauces are strong contenders, but surprisingly, children also enjoy things like vegetable couscous.

This is based on a detailed analysis of lunch menus consumed during the last school year in more than 260 school restaurants and canteens operated by Primirest. The company is the largest provider of school catering services in the Czech Republic. It serves nearly 30,000 students, from preschool to high school, daily. The analysis, based on an average of half a million meals per month, shows that classic dishes continue to dominate school lunches in the Czech Republic, while new flavors are gradually finding their way into standard school menus.

Spaghetti everywhere. Forget ketchup and cheese.

Spaghetti emerged as the clear winner in the popularity rankings of both dishes and children's favorite foods. Children love them in the classic Bolognese style – they are the absolute winner in the main course category. They also enjoy spaghetti Sorentina (3rd place in the "healthy" food category), vegan lentil Bolognese spaghetti (3rd place in the meatless category), and spaghetti with organic beef (3rd place in the 100% organic beef ranking). Spaghetti, as a convincing winner in the imaginary children's hit parade of main courses, dethroned even the timeless queen of Czech gastronomy – beef sirloin in cream sauce – followed by fried chicken cutlets.

"Children simply love pasta. I'm glad that vegan lentil Bolognese spaghetti also appeared in the ranking. Lentils are a great food, full of fiber and plant-based protein," commented Kristýna Ostratická, a nutrition expert and Fit Brand Chef at Delirest and Primirest, about the victory of spaghetti. As for couscous, she wasn't surprised: "It's actually also a type of pasta, so children are simply reinforcing their choice with couscous."

"As soon as we offer children pasta with a red sauce, they immediately reach for it. They automatically associate it with pasta with ketchup, and it's easier to 'sneak' lentils into such a dish. Also, when we talk about legumes, children also love lentils in a sour sauce or pea porridge; they generally like sweet and sour flavors," commented Tomáš Cikhart, Brand Chef at Primirest, on the results.

Soup is a more difficult way to get children to eat vegetables.

It's a challenge to get children to eat enough vegetables. Soups are the easiest and best way to achieve this. At Primirest, they are always available, and it seems that children enjoy not only classic noodle soups. Beef broth takes the top spot as the most popular soup, followed closely by vegetable soups with couscous and buckwheat. Classic school carrot soup comes in fourth place, and the top five is rounded out by leek soup with egg. What happened to the children's "staple," tomato soup with dumplings?

"It hasn't disappeared; it's still very popular. We're now making it with oatmeal. However, the results show that children prefer broths," explains Cikhart.

"I was pleasantly surprised by the popularity of buckwheat soup in the soup category. It's not easy to get children to eat it. The fact that it's on the menu proves that our chefs can prepare it in a way that children enjoy, which is excellent from a nutritional standpoint," adds Ostratická.

The flavors of childhood remain unchanged.

In the ranking of sweet dishes, the dukátové buchtičky (a type of sweet pastry) have maintained their lead from last year. They clearly won in this category over another classic school menu item – semolina porridge with cocoa and alpine dumplings, which came in third place with the children.

It seems that the flavors of childhood remain constant. "Who among us didn't love these as a child?" asks Ostratická rhetorically, adding: "If sweet treats are not overdone and the menu is balanced and nutritious overall, then it's fine." Therefore, children at Primirest cafeterias can enjoy a sweet treat only twice a month.

The Primirest kitchens also don't forget about nutritionally balanced snacks. They are made fresh daily, by hand, and directly in each kitchen to ensure freshness and compliance with the "snack regulation." This makes it easier for parents to get their children ready for school and work, as they don't have to worry about preparing the snacks themselves. Children most often choose milk with cornflakes, a roll with butter and egg, or broccoli spread for their snacks.

When it comes to beef, Primirest always uses organic quality.

Beef dishes in Primirest restaurants and cafeterias are prepared exclusively with organic beef. The high quality of the ingredients is reflected in the children's interest – beef goulash, sirloin steak, Znojmo-style beef, or Stroganoff noodles are consistently the most popular choices on the menu.

The preference for traditional sauces and fried dishes reflects more the taste preferences, or rather, the familiarity of specific dishes among children and their parents, rather than the overall range and possibilities of school kitchens. Primirest's mascot, Barvožrout (a character promoting healthy eating), tries to promote new ingredients, recipes, and dishes in school restaurants and cafeterias, playfully teaching children about the variety and richness of food on their plates, how an ideal portion should look, and that lunch doesn't have to be just fried and contain meat.

Children can choose from at least three dishes every day.

  • The traditional menu complies with the nutritional guidelines set by Regulation No. 17/2015 concerning school catering, and is therefore nutritionally balanced.
  • Other options are inspired by international cuisine, allowing children to experience flavors from India, Vietnam, China, or Thailand.
  • A complete vegetarian dish without meat is also available.
  • Since September 2023, Primirest has also been preparing a meal with a reduced gluten content.
  • A new offering for the 2024/2025 school year will be 100% vegetarian meals, which we are currently testing and will be available in all school canteens and dining halls in the coming weeks.

"Parents have the opportunity to choose a dish together with their children that they truly enjoy, because for a certain age, a schoolchild's lunch choice is often the parent's choice. However, some parents prefer not to experiment and would rather choose a familiar dish from their home environment – which is a shame, because school canteens are an ideal place for children to discover different flavors and aromas from around the world," notes Cikhart.

Because children's tastes are very changeable, new dishes and specialties are gradually introduced in Primirest school canteens and dining halls. A special initiative called the "Gastro Calendar" is used for this purpose, where new dishes are added to the menu every third week of the month. In this way, data determines which dishes are so popular that they become a permanent part of the daily menu offered by Primirest.

primirest.cz / gnews.cz - RoZ_07