The Michelin-starred chef visited the Busy Bees nursery in Litchfield, Staffordshire, to introduce a special new healthy menu he created with help from the chain's chefs and a child nutrition expert.
The menu - featuring Scrumptious Sticky Lime Chicken, Easy Angel Cake Custard, and Chocolate Cherry Muffins - will be rolled out to Busy Bees' 131 nurseries from January. The recipes will be available to parents via booklets and online.
After a workshop with the children, who were all kitted out in chefs' whites for the occasion, Mr Vickery praised their knowledge of different foods, and their readiness to dive into the mixing bowl.
'Just getting the children involved is essential,' he said. 'Today we've done some baking, tasted different sorts of fruit and veg, and looked at ingredients like vanilla essence.
'I very much support Busy Bees' approach, where enjoying a little of what you fancy is part of an all-round healthy and balanced diet. That might be a pizza with tomato, olive oil and mozzarella, or sweet things in moderation, like a breakfast muffin with oats and fruit.'
He said his own children have firm views on some vegetables - 'spinach salad didn't go down well' - but there were ways of introducing different flavours to favourite foods like mash.
'We try to balance texture and taste, and if something looks colourful, at least a child will look at it. Then they touch it, and smell it, and then they want to eat it.'
Busy Bees operations director Marg Randles said, 'We wanted to raise the profile of our healthy eating campaign and we actively promote this message in our nurseries. There's a misconception that children won't try new things, but if they're introduced to new foods, using fresh ingredients, and see their friends eating it, that can encourage them to make the best choices.'
