Annual Young Chef Competition
Since 2007, members of the Andover Rotary Club have organised the local heats of the Rotary Young Chef Competition. Pupils from local schools and colleges have progressed well to the next stages in the national competition.
The 2010 / 2011 Competition
Round 1 (The Andover Schools)
Winton School was the venue for Andover’s opening round this year of the Rotary Young Chef competition on Thursday 4th November 2010. Ten contestants from Andover secondary schools took part in the challenge to make a healthy starter and main course for two people on a budget of £10. The school was soon filled with delicious aromas as the young people created a wide variety of appetising meals.
The judges, including Peter Jeffries of The Mayfly, Advertiser Editor Joe Scicluna and Sarah Miles-Smith, Catering Consultant, observed the contestants every move. They rated them on a range of factors from hygiene and planning through to presentation of their table - and of course the taste of the finished dishes. "Delicious" was a word heard often in the kitchen as Italian and Thai recipes along with traditional English menus were sampled.
The judges task was extremely difficult as all competitors produced a very high standard of cooking, but in the end it was Lee Roberts from John Hanson who won the day with his goats cheese and beetroot tartlet with walnut salad and caramelised onion, followed by chicken in Parma ham over a bed of home made tagliatelli and courgettes.
Ross Adolph [Test Valley] came second with a difficult dish of fish cakes in a spicy relish and beef casserole; and James Weatherley also from Test Valley School produced a superb chicken dipped in red wine with parsnip puree tart to earn third place.
Presenting the prizes Louise Portnall, Office Manager at Le Creuset complimented all the young people on the high standard of their work and said that many had shown considerable culinary skills in producing challenging dishes from scratch. John Powell, President of Andover Rotary Club thanked Le Creuset for donating superb prizes, and Waitrose who generously provided the contestants' ingredients, adding that for him, all the contestants were winners.
And so to Round Two
Lee and Ross moved forward to represent Andover in Group 5 Round organised by Amesbury R.C. It was a tough contest, with some excellent entries from schools in Salisbury, Romsey, Amesbury as well as Andover striving to present the best healthy, two-course dinner on an international theme. As in a previous year the runner-up in our Club round emerged as the winner of the Group 5 round. Ella Reed from South Wiltshire Grammar School secured second place and Lee Roberts came third. Ross and Ella will now represent Group 5 at the District Final in Ferndown early in 2011.
We wish them well.
