Please Sir, May I Have Some More... Jamie Oliver

A likely lad from the much maligned southern English county of Essex, Jamie Oliver has long been fighting a one-man battle to both prove the merit of food bearing the "made in Britain" stamp, while simultaneously improving the diets of fat little school kids up and down the country.

The TV series "Jamie's School Dinners," which propelled the celebrity chef from the heat of the kitchen into Downing Street to pep talk Prime Minister Tony Blair, debuts on German television on Monday.

But the nation's small screen is not the only place where Germans can get a taste of Oliver's exquisite cuisine. This week, for one week only, 50 Berlin schools are putting their sauerkraut and sausage specials on the backburner, and laying their tables to accommodate the very best of English edibles.

German kids need healthy food

The idea came from one Rolf Hoppe, Managing Director of the Luna restaurant which serves up lunch time meals to schools across the capital. Although Germany's reputation for fast-food facilities and tubby teenagers has not yet swelled to the same dimensions as those back in Blighty, Hoppe says there is a definite case for increasing awareness of healthy eating.

Hence Jamie's chance to prove himself in German school canteens. With recipes from his "Feed me Better" UK school meals campaign, he will be trying to woo some 4,500 Berlin kids with oodles of noodles showered with shavings of parmesan, vitamin-laden veggie goulash, the more traditional baked beans and mash or lots of lovely jubbly banana porridge pudding.

Whether German kids will bite or prefer to swallow the traditional thinking of the nation when it comes to island repasts, will simply be a matter of taste.