Annual Rotary Young Chef Competition
Round 2 of the Group 5 Area Annual Rotary Clubs Young Chef competition took place at Test Valley School on Wednesday 25th November.
Facing stiff competition from pupils at schools in Salisbury, Romsey, and Amesbury, the two Andover students took first and second prize, winning fabulous prizes kindly donated by Le Creuset as their reward.
In all, eight students who had won the first round of the competition earlier in November arrived at Test Valley School to prepare themselves for the competition. Each student had to select a menu for a two course meal for two people within a budget of £10, and prepare their food in 90 minutes.
They were assessed by a panel of three judges for their skills. The assessments were made on their kitchen skills and cleanliness disciplines, the healthy selection of ingredients, the range of skills used in preparing their meals and presentation on the table.
The theme of the evening was international cuisine.
Chloe Slade from John Hanson Community School chose a French theme for her winning menu. Her first course comprised Filet de Porc a la Normandie – a pork fillet stuffed with apples, cranberries, sage, rosemary and mustard served in a cider sauce. The fillet was accompanied with dauphinois potatoes, vichy carrots and green beans. Her dessert was Chloe’s brownies with chocolate and cointreau sauce.
The runner up was Simon Manton from Test Valley School, who chose a Moroccan theme for his menu. Simon prepared a Harissa Lamb Medley, comprising a rack of lamb with a traditional harrisa and herb crust served with a refreshing bulgar wheat salad, roasted peppers and tomato and a garlic and parsley yoghurt accompaniment. Simon’s dessert was a Morrocan orange Delight, a fat and gluten free orange cake served with a raspberry and fig confit.
The panel of judge, led by Peter Jefferies, the Head Chef at the Mayfly included Sarah Miles-Smith who was the former head of catering at Andover College, and a passionate ‘foodie’, and who now runs her own hospitality training company ‘Milestone Training’ and Joe Scicluna, Editor of the Andover Advertiser, who is renowned for his taste-buds!
The panel watched the students as they prepared their meals, taking particular note of their attention to cleanliness and to detail. The competition was so good that they took a long time to assess the results and finally to announce the winner. The panel of judges shared their feedback with each of the students at the end of the evening.
The prizes were very kindly donated by le Creuset and presented by Louise Portnall of Le Creuset and David Moulton, President of the Rotary Club of Andover. Thanks were also given to the staff at Test Valley School for being excellent hosts, and making the pupils, their parents, the judges and members of the Rotary clubs in the area feel most welcome.
Chloe and Simon will go onto the next round to represent our area in Hampshire, Isle of Wight and parts of Wiltshire at the next stage which is to be held at Eastleigh on 6th February 2010.
