The Educator Magazine U.K. Jan-April 2023. - Magazine - Page 30
hosts Young Chef of the Year competition
Wakefield College is helping pupils
discover their passion for cooking, as it
hosts the finals of the Waterton Young
Chef of the Year competition 2022-2023
in partnership with ISS.
The competition saw pupils from the
Waterton Academy Trust design and
prepare a nutritious main course meal
for the England World Cup Football team
based on a list of ingredients.
The dishes were then judged by David
Sheppard, Account Manager at ISS;
Duncan Newall, Executive Chef at the ISS,
Lillian Gorman, Operations Manager at
the ISS and Darren Sharpe, Curriculum
Development Manager for Hospitality
and Catering at Wakefield College, as well
as the Waterton Children’s Parliament
Prime Minister on behalf of David
Dickinson OBE, CEO of Waterton Trust.
Darren said: “Learning how to cook is
an incredibly important life skill, so I’m
delighted that we were able to host
the semi-finals of the competition in
our training restaurant – helping to
encourage pupils to discover their
interest in cooking from a young age.
The pupils were given 90 minutes to
prepare their main course and had their
own work paces and equipment to do
this, which gave them a real idea of what
working in a fast-paced kitchen can be like.
We hope this is just the start of the journey
for a number of aspiring chefs!”
Three students made it to the Grand
finale of the competition, where they
were asked to produce a ‘winter
celebration’ inspired dish using food from
a ‘Mystery Table’. Chefs from ISS worked
with Waterton pupils to support and
guide them through producing their final
dishes. Finalist young chefs produced
‘Seb’s Terrific Tree-t Pizzas’, ‘Harry’s Winter
Warmer’ and ‘Southgate’s Saucy Winter
Gnocchi’.