Nine o'clock in the kitchen
The cook comes in at eight. She needs to know how many lunches and teas to make, and for which rooms. The office usually sends a number after drop-off, around half nine. Until then she works from what Tuesdays normally look like. Today there are two extra sessions she did not know about, three children off sick, and a new starter whose dietary record is on a form in the office.
Some days there is food left over. Some days the pre-school room is short and a member of staff goes to the kitchen to sort it out, while the children wait.
Why the kitchen is always last to know
- Bookings are in the nursery system, which the kitchen does not use.
- Absences are phoned in to the office and not passed on.
- Extra sessions booked during the week are not reflected in the kitchen's plan.
- Families who bring a packed lunch are not always marked.
- Each child's dietary record lives in their file, not on a list the cook sees each day.
Dietary requirements and allergy procedures are governed by your own policies and the advice you follow. This is not about those rules. It is about getting accurate, current information to the kitchen every day so the cook can follow them.
What the guesswork costs
Food waste when too much is cooked. Shortfalls when too little is. The office spends the start of each day counting and phoning the kitchen. The cook works from memory and paper for dietary needs, which is risky when records change and a new child starts.
The kitchen sheet we build
- Each morning, the system takes today's bookings from your nursery management system, including extras and swaps.
- Absences reported by parents that morning, through the app or form, are taken off.
- Children whose families provide their own food for a meal are shown separately.
- Each child's dietary information is pulled from their record and shown on the sheet next to their room, in the format your policy sets.
- The kitchen sheet is shown on a tablet in the kitchen or printed, by room and meal, and updates if something changes after it was produced.
- Changes to a child's dietary record are flagged on the next sheet so the cook sees that something is new.
| Meal | Room | Numbers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lunch | Baby room | From bookings minus absences | Individual needs listed by child |
| Lunch | Pre-school | From bookings minus absences | Packed lunch children shown separately |
| Tea | All rooms | Children booked past tea time | Changes since morning flagged |
What the sheet shows about each child's needs is decided by your setting. We present what your records contain and highlight changes.
Morning in the kitchen, after
The cook arrives and the tablet shows today's numbers by room, already adjusted for the two extra sessions and the absences phoned through before eight. The new starter's dietary record is on the sheet with a 'new' flag. At half nine a late absence comes in, and the number updates. Nobody has to ring the kitchen.
Over a term, the owner can compare meals booked and food ordered, which helps with ordering.
The office benefits as much as the kitchen. Nobody spends the first half hour of the day counting heads and ringing through, and when the cook has a question about a child's record, she can see who last updated it and when, instead of walking to the office to ask. On days when the usual cook is off, the relief cook starts from the same sheet, which matters most on exactly the days when nobody remembers the regulars.
Does your kitchen work from guesses?
- The cook starts before knowing today's numbers.
- Absences are not passed to the kitchen.
- Dietary records are on paper in the office.
- Food is regularly wasted or runs short.
- Extra sessions surprise the kitchen.