School Menu Design Handbook
Franco Fassio, Nadia Tecco, Pollenzo Food Lab
How can a school menu become a tool for health, sustainability and education? The School Menu Design Handbook offers a systemic response developed within SchoolFood4Change (SF4C), a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme with contributions from experts in gastronomy, nutrition, sustainability, education and the social sciences.
Created as a reference for training delivered across 12 European countries, the handbook supports cooks, educators, dietitians, local authorities, procurement professionals, canteen staff and families in designing school meals that are tasty, healthy, sustainable and genuinely accepted by children. Its starting point is simple but decisive: food-system change cannot succeed if children do not enjoy what is served.
The book is structured around three interconnected dimensions. The first explores food preferences, sensory perception, neophobia and cultural influences, providing tools to design for pleasure and assess acceptability. The second addresses progressive exposure and circular cooking, linking nutrition, One Health, the protein transition, biodiversity and food-waste prevention. The third presents school meals as opportunities for active and participatory learning, highlighting the educational role of cooks, canteens and the wider school community.
Theory, methodology and practical tools are combined throughout. Rather than prescribing a rigid model, the handbook provides an adaptable guide for different organisational and cultural contexts, helping readers translate the goals of the food and ecological transition into the tangible, everyday experience of a school meal.
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 – Food Preferences
1 – HOW AND WHY WE PERCEIVE
Senses, cuisine and evolution
How our senses work
2 – FROM US TO SOCIETY
From neophobia to pleasure
Sociocultural differences
3 – SCIENCE OF FOOD AS A MEANS OF ACCEPTABILITY
Why a scientific kitchen?
Sensory evaluation and acceptance
4 – PAIRING FOR PLEASURE
Colour, shape and appearance
Texture in cooking
Flavours
Tastes
5 – PROCESSES FOR ENJOYMENT
Food preservation
Cooking, from moist to dry heat
Drying
Infusions, extractions and marinades
Fermentation
Semi-finished products and their uses
6 – DESIGN
The creative matrix of the dish
Recipe structure
Chapter 2 – Progressive Exposure and Circular Cooking
1 – SYSTEMIC APPROACH FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Systemic thinking as a tool for breaking down complexity
2 – NUTRITION AND WELLNESS
Nutrition and One Health
Food as a relationship
3 – ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Agroecological approaches for sustainable agriculture and food systems
Protein transition
Food waste in school canteens
4 – SUSTAINABILITY IN THE KITCHEN
A balanced meal
What to reduce and what to increase?
Progressive exposure
The political-economic-cultural paradigm of the circular economy
The ingredient as capital
The ingredient as relationship
5 – MENU DESIGN
Cyclicality as an operational framework
Pure, short, long and cascade cycles
Matching raw materials, processes and technology
Strategies for progressive exposure
Sustainable and healthy menus
Chapter 3 – Active Learning
1 – FOOD LITERACY THROUGH EXPERIENCE
Co-evolution and education for sustainable food and nutrition
A short history of food education and its methods
Food culture and environmental preservation: The role of learning communities
Cooking as a learning and co-evolutionary action
The cook as educator
The Whole School Food Approach: A holistic place-based model to co-create sustainable food systems for children and youth
2 – ACTIVE LEARNING AND DIRECT EXPERIENCES
How do we learn?
Educating the next generation
The learning setting
'A hands-on approach': The school cookery workshop
Self-determined choices and the active role of the child
3 – LEARNING BEYOND THE DISH – INSPIRING EXPERIENCES
Educational activities in the school canteen
The classroom as a laboratory
Canteen Day
