What’s cooking? – We’re well and truly into the new year and have been busy planning exciting new menus and engaging events across our catering service.
Our teams certainly spread the love this Valentine’s Day, creating eye-catching counter displays and beautifully decorated biscuits that enjoyed by customers across schools and care homes.
Listening to student feedback – What makes our high school food offer so popular is our commitment to listening to student feedback and responding to changing tastes. We are seeing growing demand for a wider range of plant-based dishes to support flexitarian-style diets, alongside requests for more curries, pasta dishes, and easy-to-eat handheld street food options. We’ve taken this feedback on board and are looking forward to launching several new dishes after February half-term. New menu additions will include roasted squash and chickpea salad, mac ’n’ cheese topped with crispy beef, Jamaican jerk chicken, and a filled giant Yorkshire pudding.
Celebrating World Book Day – World Book Day on 5 March is always a firm favourite in the school calendar. This year, our themed menu celebrates 100 years of Winnie the Pooh, with dishes including sticky honey chicken, Roo’s pitta pocket, Tigger’s bouncy tomato pasta twists, and Rabbit’s veg patch salad, followed by Eeyore’s blueberry muffin. We can’t wait to see pupils enjoying the menu — especially those dressed up in their World Book Day costumes.
Involving young people through Flourish – We continue to uphold our Flourish pledge, actively involving children and young people in the development of our menus. Flourish is a partnership strategy led by Norfolk Children’s Services, working to make Norfolk the best place to grow up. Our teams regularly attend student councils to gather feedback on new recipes and products for the upcoming Spring/Summer Primary School Menu. Recent tasting sessions have included chicken tacos, vegetable curry, marble shortbread, and BBQ bean bake.
We’re pleased to announce the return of Active Canaries on Thursday 19 March — a fun and engaging day focused on healthy eating and physical activity, delivered in partnership by Norse Group and the Norwich City Community Sports Foundation. Pupils will enjoy a specially created menu developed by Norwich City FC’s Head Chef, Dan Savage, alongside Norse’s Menu Development Team. The menu reflects the nutritious meals enjoyed by professional athletes, with allergen-aware and plant-based options available. Pupils will also learn how healthy food supports energy, wellbeing, and performance through food facts shared by Norwich City FC’s nutritionist. The day will also include a virtual assembly with special guest appearances, and recipe cards for pupils to take home. We will share photos from this exciting programme in our next blog!
We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with schools and pupils to deliver nutritious, exciting meals and memorable food experiences throughout the year.
Best wishes,
Norse Group’s Catering Team
Copyright 2026 Norse Catering | Website Design by TEN Creative