Cafe Des Amis
Meet the team behind the food at our Raised in Bristol nurseries
We met with Lyndsey Co-director of Cafe Des Amis to find out more about the food that she and the team provide for the children at our nurseries as well as a little more about her, Glenn and the Cafe Des Amis story as a whole!
Cafe Des Amis are the team behind the nutritious food served to the children at our RiB nurseries
What’s your background and what inspired your interest in nutrition?
So our background is – myself and Glenn – we are partners in real life as well as being business partners and previous to being in hospitality we both worked in education. Which seems like a big jump but actually there’s a lot of crossover! From the educational setting our interest in nutrition came from observing people's access to food and the desire to serve people real, nutrient rich food.
Originally, we first specialised in over 16s education. Glenn was on the apprenticeship training, business administration and IT side of things and I worked with young people who were struggling to engage. A lot of children finish school and fall through the net. So we set up a project together that we ran for a number of years and the idea was to run a course to get young people to the point of being able to engage with society.
Glenn's experience with the apprenticeships meant we could really look at developing their IT and practical skills whereas I worked on helping them sort out their benefits, housing and helping them do things like open a bank account.
As we started to work with these young people we really started to realise a lot of the issue was down to them not having the right nutrition. Which wasn't always as simple as not eating, but not eating the right food.
So on our course we set rules like banning energy drinks in our space - instead we’d put a stew on – which they detested the smell of for the first few weeks of the 12 week course… but then by the third week they’d be saying ‘you know what that actually smells quite good’ and then by the fourth week they’d be digging in. We found that cooking with them pushed them. As a lot of them had the attitude, ‘I enjoy cooking it but...’ they were unsure about the food because it didn’t come out of a familiar packet. We’d ask them ‘when was the last time you sat down at a table to eat?’ you know instead of stuffing something down on their lap or on the move. A lot of them couldn't remember ever sitting down at a table for a proper meal.
Halloumi and Mediterranean vegetable wrap – Cafe Des Amis
Tell us a bit about the history of Cafe Des Amis for those who don’t know…
We’d always wanted to get more into hospitality. So when the opportunity arose, a friend of ours was selling their cafe – Cafe Des Amis and we took it over! From the start, after our experience in education, we wanted to provide healthy food but at low cost for everyone.
We also wanted to get away from the notion that healthier food comes with more of a price tag and alongside that we wanted to create a community hub and bring people together in a welcoming space.
It was important to us that we didn't alienate people by making a huge deal about specifically being a ‘health cafe’ either. There’s no big sign that says ‘health cafe’ or signs saying that ‘we don't use excess salts, sugar and oil’ but we do make healthy and nutritious food that tastes good!
The idea, when we opened at Easton Community centre, was to offer the style of cafe that has great coffee and really delicious food that you’d find on the high street but at a fraction of the cost – where you can get a couple of pounds out of your pocket for a meal.
We wanted it to be a meeting place for people but not feel like they have a time limit to how long they can spend like they are being shooed out of the seats cos we need to free it up for the next group. That social element is really at the core of what we do.
When we opened in Easton Community Centre it was at the same time that you guys at Raised in Bristol were opening the first nursery there and you approached us about doing the food for the nursery. With our background in education and knowledge on nutrition it was a perfect fit! So we were onboard from the very beginning and set about designing menus for the children to have throughout their day at the nursery.
In the same way that Raised in Bristol has grown we have too! Now with our second kitchen here in Southmead which we opened last year. Which came about through our links with Raised in Bristol, with the newest nursery opening last year here at the Greenway Centre we were introduced to the team here at the centre.
Due to the pandemic their in-house cafe had to close and they decided to put the space out tender. We were getting to the point at Easton where the kitchen there was so tiny and we just didn’t have the space for the expansion of the business so when this space at Southmead came up it was the next logical step. So we now do all of the prep for the nursery food here in Southmead as well as running the cafe for the centre.
The Easton cafe is now run by one of our star chefs who had been head chef there, which has worked out great because we have been able to provide him help with the first steps for running his own business – under our mentorship using the Cafe Des Amis model. This has now freed Glen and I up and so that we are now based here full time at Southmead.
Lunch time at Raised in Bristol at Felix Road Adventure Playground
Where do you source your ingredients from?
Where at all possible it’s all got to be organic and free range. We use Essential Trading for our beans, pulse, soy, oats and wheat – because we don’t use processed products in any way. We make everything from scratch ourselves so the food hasn’t got loads of additives, sugar and salt. Total produce who source us all of our fruit and veggies which are of course organic. In the summer we use Jekkas for all of our leaves and our greens. An organic egg company for all of eggs and dairy products – organic and free range. Which is the same for our meat, we use farm shops to source free range and organic meat.
Quality produce is really at the centre of what we do. We are able to do this by controlling the portion size. I would much rather provide smaller portion sizes of nutrient rich food that gives the children everything they need – because using quality ingredients is more important than overfilling the plate with food made with low quality ingredients. As we find that most children don’t want a huge portion but that's also why it’s so important that they are getting all of their nutrients from the meals we make for them.
Tempeh Tacos – Cafe Des Amis
How do you plan the menus for the nursery?
We tend to start out with the core recipe being vegan and gluten free and then we add in the extra ingredients from there – like dairy, meat and fish. That means that every child's dietary needs are met so the children with specific requirements, allergies and intolerances will get a balanced equivalent to what their peers are having and are not some after thought. For example, for a child who is vegan or lactose intolerant we will use nutritional yeast which has a lot of vitamins and nutritional value instead of using a fake cheese replacement that doesn’t have those same nutritional benefits.
I don’t believe you should dumb things down for anyone – whether thats in the cafe or for the nursery food for the children. We find if you get them while they are young they are actually way more adventurous. Because the kids don't have any preconceptions of what healthy food should be like… Whereas adults have had time to make up their minds on what they do and don’t like – perhaps through bad experiences or just on assumption they aren’t going to like something. So here at Cafe Des Amis we think it's really important to get a variety of colour and texture in the food we make because from a young age children are more likely to be more adventurous.
Generally with the weekly menu, we have one day that’s meat, one day that’s fish, a couple of days that are vegetarian – one of those being vegetable based and the other with soya alternatives and then one day that’s completely vegan. That's the basis of the weekly menu plan but then within that we also make sure that every day there’s also some kind of pulse like beans or lentils and we use different carbs. So the menus are really nutritionally dense and varied so the children are getting everything they need. They don’t have to eat huge portion sizes either because this type of food is so nourishing. Another large part of planning the menu is using the best seasonal produce for that time of the year because this is great both nutritionally and for the planet as it's more sustainable.
The children are actually way more adventurous with flavour and texture than they are given credit!
What is the Early Start Nutrition Mark and how do meet the Eat Better Start Better voluntary food and drink guidelines?
When we design the menus we use the government early years food guidelines as a basis but it is pretty basic. Which is kind of shocking because there are some great resources out there like ‘Eating well for 1–4 year olds: Practical Guide’ a report from The Caroline Walker Trust which really is a really comprehensive guide. As well as the Early Start Group – who provide nutritional resources and guidance specifically aimed at the Early Years Sector. So we are a member with them and they accredit the Early Start Nutrition Mark.
We send our menus out to them each quarter and they get evaluated by their specialist early years nutritionists to check we are getting the right nutritional balance as well as meeting the government guidelines we need to be and they are then approved by them. Additionally they are just generally a great resource to be able to bounce ideas for menus or ask particularly specialist advice about a particular child's allergy or need. I can also go to them with specific questions from parents and provide them with answers and information on specific things.
It’s been really useful to be able to bounce ideas back and forth and get their advice on the menus. For example they gave us the idea for using Tempeh instead of Tofu – Tempeh is a fermented soybean product but as well as being richer in nutritional value because of that fermentation we have found it has a better texture for a protein alternative it’s also got twice the protein level of say chicken so a little bit goes a long way.
Pop in to Cafe Des Amis for a coffee and a bite to eat next time you’ve dropped the little ones off at nursery
Do you have any plans on the horizon for Cafe Des Amis in 2022?
Surviving! Haha – Nah, but we moved in here (at the Greenway Centre) in June last and after the whole uncertainty of the pandemic in the last few years our main thing is developing our team and helping them succeed and grow. What’s lovely is we’ve got two young ladies that we are training up to be chefs. Straight away we’ve been doing the food allergy training and imparting our nutritional knowledge so they really know the ins and outs of what we do here and our ethos. Between running the cafe here at the centre and providing the meals for all four of Raised in Bristol nurseries there’s a lot to know and understand.
I am also working on getting Cafe Des Amis accredited with the Soil Association for their Food for Life accreditation which like the Early Start Nutrition Mark, is both a great resource but another thing backing up our beliefs and adding that mark of quality to what we do. The Food for Life programme is all about making good food the easy choice for everyone – making healthy, tasty and sustainable meals the norm for all to enjoy, reconnecting people with where their food comes from, teaching them how it’s grown and cooked, and championing the importance of well-sourced ingredients.
Also things are beginning to return to normal. We'd really like to be getting back into the nurseries again to give the children that sense of knowing where their food is coming from and to do events like pancake day with them as well as getting involved with the Raised in Bristol coffee mornings again to get to know the parents better.
Thanks so much to Lyndsey for giving us the opportunity to get to know more about Cafe Des Amis. Next time you’ve dropped your little ones off at nursery, why not pop into the Cafe and grab a coffee and a bite to eat. Also be sure to look out for our next blog where Lyndsey has given us one of the children’s favourite recipes from the nursery menus, their ‘Mini Foodies Baked Beans’ but also with a hack for how you can adult-it-up!
Check out the Cafe Des Amis Instagram Page to see what they are up to.
