Family focus: Annabel Karmel and Brakes keeping the kids happy.
Children's menus remain one of the biggest challenges for pubs looking to increase their family business
Striking a balance between featuring dishes that children enjoy, and the healthier options that parents want to see can be hard enough.
Annabel Karmel MBE, the best-selling author on children's food and nutrition, is working with supplier Brakes to try and bridge this gap. An initial range of children's meals was trialed last year, and has now been expanded.
Based on the experience of Brakes and Annabel at Haven holiday parks, a number of managed pub groups are taking an interest in the range, which is also available to independent pubs through Brakes' latest catalogue. Family restaurant brands Tootsies and Dexters have also added the meals to their menus this year.
Haven is running weekly Creative Kitchen sessions which include life-size characters called Polly and Ned, as well as games and quizzes.
All the holiday parks will now be serving the range of ready meals including Annabel's best-selling dish, spaghetti bolognaise with hidden vegetable sauce, as well as fruity chicken curry, fish pie, macaroni cheese and Annabel's lasagne.
The dishes have been developed by Creative Foods, the bespoke foodservice manufacturer owned by Brakes. Annabel says: "Creative has taken time to reproduce my recipes with authenticity and without compromise on taste - just like homemade food. The quality of our menu is excellent, I am really delighted."
To move the range on, Annabel has now developed a new series of recipes. These include spinach & ricotta ravioli in a tomato sauce, spaghetti carbonara, chicken tikka masala and chilli con carne with rice.
While a recent tasting day organised by Brakes saw one of Annabel's desserts, chocolate sponge, win the popular vote among kids - possibly a predictable result - the carbonara also performed extremely well.
"Giving children a healthy meal in a pub or restaurant that tastes good and is of a high quality is most important," says Annabel.
"If the child does not like the taste of food, the parents will not return with the child. All my recipes are tested on children and are guaranteed to tempt even the fussiest of eaters."
