There were no half measures when the French decided to spice up their school food. They called in a man who cooks meringues in nitrogen, turns out liquid quiches and is famed for his deconstructed lobster.

If the children who shunned Jamie Oliver’s improved school meals and got their mothers to pass burgers and fish and chips through the school gates thought they had it bad, they should meet Thierry Marx, the chef charged with taking a truly nouvelle cuisine into French school canteens.

The motivation – in a land that can be more than a bit superior about its food – is similar to Oliver’s campaign: keep pupils away from the fast-food restaurants that are threatening the nation’s heritage and waistline.

But Mr Marx is the Gallic answer to Heston Blumenthal, the creator of bacon and egg ice-cream and snail porridge. And he has been given a contract to coach the 92 chefs who produce 70,000 meals a day in lycées in central France in the art of culinary adventure. Few will dare to adopt his more exotic dishes but many say he can help them to drive school dinners into the 21st century. Lentil falafels, fish tempura and cauliflower mousse with fried chicken filets are among the recipes he will promote in lessons at his elite cooking school near Bordeaux.

“Lentils go down much better if you turn them into finger food,” said the 45-year chef. “The same is true of fish. If it is boiled with an onion in the water, pupils don’t eat it. But if it is curried or served as tempura, they do.”

He was commissioned as part of a project to transform old-fashioned canteens into trendy eateries more in tune with adolescent expectations. “We want our chefs to innovate, to create and to take initiatives,” said François Bonneau, head of the Centre Region Council.

“We want to fight against the food that produces obesity and we want to educate our pupils to appreciate the taste of good food. That’s necessary if French gastronomy of the sort appreciated the world over is to continue to thrive.” But French ambition, as ever, reaches beyond mere food to embrace the entire dining experience. Mr Marx has been given licence to overhaul everything, from the plates to the colour of the walls. Mr Bonneau said he wanted new recipes, a new style and a new decor – including high tables where teenagers can eat standing up and television screens broadcasting information on issues such as genetically modified crops and organic produce.

He had turned to the most avant garde of French chefs to stop sixth-formers drifting out of school. “More and more of them eat in sandwich bars or fast-food restaurants, and we need to make it a pleasure for them to come back into the canteen.”

The schools will make one concession: the traditional three-course French lunch will make way for a single balanced dish that can be consumed in 10 to 15 minutes. “We have to fit in with their lifestyles,” he said.

Patrick Lhuillier, head of the canteen at the Lycée Grandmont in Tours, where a team of 15 cooks prepare 2,400 meals a day, welcomed the project. He said that he had started overhauling his canteen already . . . by banning tomato ketchup. “The pupils moaned but now they’re used to it.”

Today’s specials . . .

Boeuf fumé rib steak grilled in an envelope of cabernet sauvignon vine shoots

Bouillon de poule à la réglisse chicken wings caramelised over a flame, then plunged into water and cooked with liquorice. A whipped liquorice cream is added before serving

Poires pétillantes pears cooked in red wine and served with pepper ice cream

Liquid quiche lorraine egg yolks, cream and pork belly cooked for 45 minutes at 83C and then poured into the pastry

Lentil falafels lentils, onions, parsley and coriander mixed, moulded into a horn shape and deep fried

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