Parents, children and school chefs all had their taste buds at the ready as they tested out a brand new school dinner menu.

Enfield Borough Council’s canteen was awash with parent and children all waiting to try out the latest meals that will be brought in in April this year.

The new menu will serve up a variety of dishes from Moroccan chicken to salmon and hoki paella and a vegetarian vegetable and lentil patti with sweet chilli salsa.

After the main meals were gobbled up, Jamaican ginger cake and Turkish apple pie was on offer for pudding.

Year 4 pupil Nathaniel Blake, of Lavender Primary School in Lavender Road, Enfield, revealed that, in his opinion, the Moroccan chicken stole the show.

He said: “In my opinion, I really loved the Moroccan chicken; it had lots of great flavours with the cous cous and carrots.

“The Jamaican ginger cake had a really nice texture as well. I don’t think I would have the salmon and hoki paella, that wasn’t my favourite.”

After Nathaniel had given his verdict, father Paul said that it was “very important” to see such a plethora of options for children.

He said: “When I was at school, there was nothing even close to this and it is great to see so much on a menu. It is very important in my opinion that there is a lot of healthy options that are from different cultures.

“There is no greasy food on the menu, which is good. Children love to have options and this menu certainly has that. I personally loved the ginger cake for desert, I might go back up for a second piece.”

Pupils of George Spicer School in Southbury Road, Enfield, Alicia Loughlin, ten, and Iona MacDowall- Davies, 11, admitted they had mixed views.

They said: “Some of the food we liked has been taken out but we are in the middle about the changes.

"There is a lot of variety on the menu and the food we had was ok but there are a couple of things that have been taken off that we liked.”