Donuts & Other Foods at the Chalet School Quiz

Answer: Simone Lecoutier

Or, to be precise, an 'omelette aux fines herbes', an omelette using a herb mixture, usually parsley, tarragon, chervil and chives. Joey is ill, and Simone makes the omelette to calm Joey down after she and a couple of other girls accidentally fish what they think is a dead body out of a lake. It turns out to be an artist's dummy.

Answer: Garlic cloves

Cornelia gets her spices confused, and takes garlic cloves from the ingredients cupboard. The cloves end up in half the pies, which are then served to the school, much to the disgust of the unfortunate girls who eat them.

Rechauffé literally means 'reheated', and is traditionally a dish containing leftovers.

Answer: Bacon

Raw smoked bacon, to be precise. It has the side effect of making some of the girls ill, including Thekla herself. Joyce is violently sick and Mary Shaw also suffers. Matron doses them all with cod liver oil, and the offenders are banned from eating sweet foods for a week and have their pocket money docked. (Unlike Enid Blyton, Elinor M Brent-Dyer did not look favourably on midnight feasts - in 'Chalet School' books, there are always consequences!)

Answer: Flora McDonald

If you've read 'Highland Twins at the Chalet School', you might be able to figure out the answer. Florence is a friend of Betty Wynne-Davies, the McDonald twins' arch-nemesis in that book. Unfortunately for Flora, her trick backfires when Florence's casserole is served to the staff, and she is forced to own up.

Answer: Waffles and fruit cake

Lavender, Daisy and Primula Venables, and the McDonald twins decide to make waffles and fruit cake. As the book is set during the war years, they have to use powdered eggs instead of real ones, and end up putting too much bicarbonate of soda and baking powder in the waffles.

As a result, the waffles rise to enormous proportions, and are borderline inedible, even when drenched in maple syrup. The fruit cake also has to be scrapped and given to the pigs in a nearby farm instead, as Daisy has not only undercooked it, but also mixed up cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda. Luckily, Joey's maid Anna had guessed what would happen, and made some buns just in case.

Answer: Cod liver oil

Carola's form are very smug about the success of their fish and chips, but get a rude awakening when Mary-Lou has to leave the room after eating one of their doughnuts, and several other girls complain about the fishy taste. The reason behind this is that the cookery class have run out of vegetable oil, and Clem Barras suggests using Matron's olive oil. Carola goes to get Matron, but cannot find her and takes a jar of what she thinks is olive oil.

Unfortunately, it's actually cod liver oil.

Answer: She throws the cake on the floor and stamps on it

Diana Skelton has already made herself unpopular with the prefects with her arrogant attitude and bad influence, and she annoys the other girls by taking too long to finish her cake and holding them all up. Bride Bettany, the book's Head Girl, tells Diana to hurry up and Primrose Day adds insult to injury by making a snarky comment about Diana being a 'regular snail'. Diana loses her temper, throws the cake on the floor and stamps on it. Bride and Primrose order her to clean up the mess and apologise for her rudeness, and thus begins a feud between Diana and Bride.

Answer: Apple strudel

Earlier in the book, Ruey hurts her finger by accidentally catching it in her desk during a maths class and bending it back. She goes to Matron to have her finger bandaged, but takes off her bandage before a cookery lesson, where Frau Mieders has them making apple strudel. Margot's flour sifter has a loose top and she accidentally spills flour all over the space, causing a major interruption in the lesson, and when order has been restored, she notices that Ruey has taken off her bandage and comments on it, much to Ruey's annoyance. Frau Mieders overhears, re-bandages Ruey's finger and finishes making her pastry for her.

Answer: Greengages

A nearby school, St Hilda's, is forced to temporarily rehouse its staff and pupils at the Chalet School after a fire breaks out. Tensions arise between the younger pupils of both schools, not helped by the girls being cooped up due to the bad weather. Joey sends over a batch of Anna's homemade greengage jam, which the girls eat at Kaffee und Kuchen, and which is loved by everyone, to the point where the girls give three cheers for it.

Another food-related incident occurs later on when a group of girls from St Hilda's and a group of Chalet School girls, led by Jack Lambert, decide to help Gaudenz (the school handyman) by varnishing some walls. Unfortunately, they unwittingly use golden syrup instead of varnish, and have to spend their free time cleaning it off.

Answer: Boxty bread, herrings and potato/apple cake

The saint in question is, of course, St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, and the girls are served an Irish meal accordingly. As well as the boxty bread (made with mashed potatoes), herrings and potato and apple cake, served with cream, the girls are also given fried bacon and griddle cake soaked in butter.

A group of mistresses sing 'St Patrick's Day in the Morning' and Miss Burnett dances a jig in traditional Irish clothing. After the meal, the girls are all given packets of Yellow Man toffee made by Frau Mieders and some of the other mistresses, and various little themed gifts.

These include shamrock hankies given by Miss Ferrars, green bead necklets made by Joey, pictures of Ireland contributed by Miss Carey, the crafts mistress, and Irish colleen dolls for the little ones.