Mark Sargeant named LACA school food ambassador

Former National Chef of the Year Mark Sargeant has been appointed LACA school food ambassador.

The chef, who spent 13 years working with Gordon Ramsay, joins the association of school caterers at a time the sector faces significant price hikes, staff shortages and gaps in funding.

He has taken on the role with immediate effect and will be involved in the ‘Levelling Up School Food’ campaign that will hold its flagship event at Hilton Birmingham Metropole in July.

Anita Brown, national chair of LACA, said: “Mark is the ideal person to help us raise our profile and to draw more attention to the amazing work being done by the incredible people who work in school food in such difficult times operationally. His deep understanding of what great nutritional food looks like will be both an inspiration to our members and a great support to the sector.”

Sargeant added: “So many children are eligible for free school meals, meaning they have financial backgrounds which many of us can’t even imagine. For some of them this may be the only hot meal they have in the entire day.

“We need to get behind them and petition our government to ensure there is enough funding moving forward to allow schools to give them a healthy, nutritious and delicious two course meal. I have joined the team at LACA to make this happen and get the funding we need in schools to feed our future.”

Sargeant helped launch Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s in 2001 and the restaurant received a Michelin star under his tenure as chef de cuisine. He won the National Chef of the Year award in 2002.

Last year, he reopened Restaurant MS in Folkestone, which previously operated as Brasserie MS.

LACA was established in 1990 and is the leading professional body across the school food sector.