Plymouth serves up regional final of School Chef of the Year
Talented chefs from school kitchens across the South West are heading for Plymouth to scramble for position in a cook-off for the coveted title of School Chef of the Year.
Each year the LACA (Lead Authority for Catering in Education) organises a nationwide competition to find the best school chef in the country and showcase the high standards and skills that exist within the school meals service.
For the sixth year running, Plymouth is serving up the regional finals at the City College Plymouth, which will take place on Tuesday 4 March.
The competition is open to all catering staff involved in the daily preparation of school meals and puts their planning, preparation, cooking, creativity and presentation skills to the test. It requires each chef to produce, in just one and a half hours, a healthy balanced two-course meal including a main course and dessert that would appeal to eleven year olds in schools.
The dishes must conform to the Eat Well Plate and adhere to the principles of Nutritional Standards for school meals and can be made up of poultry, meat, fish and non-meat proteins but, here’s the catch, a maximum of just £1.60 pence per head is allowed for the food cost of both courses for one child.
Plymouth’s hopes rest with Natasha Wilkes from Victoria Road Primary in St Budeaux, who works for Plymouth City Council’s Education Catering Service. Five other chefs from the South West region are hoping to pip Natasha to the post to bring home the bacon! They include chefs from schools in Devon, Cornwall, North Somerset, Gloucestershire and Swindon.
After one and a half hours of heated competition the six contestants will await the decision of the judging panel before finding out if they have made it through to the National Final held in Birmingham in June.
Chair of the Judging Panel for all of the Regional Finals as well as the 2014 National Final, will be Justin Clarke, Food Development Chef for MAGGI® at Nestlé Professional®. On the Judging Panel for the 2014 South West Regional Final will also be a local professional chef judge (Paul Eynon, Chef/Proprietor, The Lemon Tree Café Bistro), an education catering expert (Jacqui Webb, LACA) a leading dietitian (Jasmine Challis, British Dietetic Association) and Jackson Duboisson and Cyryl Marchewski from Year 6 at St Andrew’s Church of England Primary School in Plymouth.
Judging is based on eight strict criteria, which range from flavour and presentation to the ability to replicate the dishes en masse in school and seasonality of ingredients.
Councillor Nicky Williams, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “We are very pleased to be hosting the regional finals of the School Chef of the Year competition again this year and wish Natasha the best of luck. I’m sure we’ll see the same excellent standards of food that we have seen in previous years and I consider the judges very lucky to be sampling such wonderful cooking.
“Plymouth’s award winning education catering service has gone from strength to strength - last year we served an extra 26,000 meals, which just goes to show the service’s growing popularity amongst children and their parents.”
For more information about Plymouth’s school meals options, visit www.plymouth.gov.uk/schoolmeals
