Having seen Jamie Oliver banish the infamous Turkey Twizzler forever more, dinner ladies from Hertfordshire’s schools are now cooking up at storm during culinary lessons at a Watford college.

Nine kitchen staff from around the county have achieved their NVQ Level 2 in food processing and cooking at West herts College and are now impressing youngsters with their healthy recipes.

The dinner ladies all work for Hertfordshire Catering - a company that cooks lunches for students in almost 450 of the county’s schools - and trained through the Train to Gain programme.

Their NVQ course covers all aspects of school catering including health and safety, staff supervision, counter service, ordering stock, as well as preparing, cooking and serving healthy dishes.

Receiving her certificate during a special ceremony held at the Langley Road campus last week, Elaine Brown said: “Since starting the training I’ve become acting area manager and the skills the course has taught me have definitely helped me find the confidence to progress within Hertfordshire Catering.”

Tracey Skeggs, who cooks the school meals at Newberries Primary School, in Radlett, said: “Jamie Oliver’s campaign gave school dinners in general a bad press, as not all schools were that bad to begin with.

“Schools in Hertfordshire were already very good at serving healthy meals, but we have improved things even further since Jamie Oliver. About 75 per cent of the children in my school are now signed up to school meals.”

She added: “Despite being daunted at the idea of returning to learning at first I’ve really enjoyed the course.

“It’s been lovely to come away from the kitchen environment and meet new people.

“The support from the tutor and others in the group was so good.”

And following the success of the first group of learners more catering staff from across the county have signed up to the Train to Gain programme at West Herts College.

Carol Harwood, training and standards manager at Hertfordshire Catering, said: “The training received so far has been very positive and we’re pleased to have now signed a second group of staff up to the programme, further cementing our relationship with the college.”