Posted: 22/06/12
Fine food challenge for college chefs
Catering students are taking their kitchen skills to Nottinghamshire's historic Welbeck Estate next week for a cookery challenge at The School of Artisan Food.
Students on West Nottinghamshire College’s professional cookery courses have been invited to take part in a ready, steady, cook-style challenge by food producers at the UK’s only school of artisan food.
On Monday (25 June) students will be placed in three teams of four competitors and receive a budget to purchase ingredients at the Welbeck Farm Shop, adjacent to the school. Teams will then be challenged to produce a three-course meal-for-two in the school's state-of-the-art training rooms and kitchens.
The judges – Councillor Ian Campbell, chairman of Bassetlaw District Council; Michael Boyle, Farm Shop manager and Sheila Russell, director of studies at The School of Artisan Food; together with Jennifer Jordan and Mark Jones from West Nottinghamshire College – will score teams for their individuality, presentation, taste and teamwork efforts.
Curriculum manager for the college’s lifestyle academy Jennifer Jordan, said: “This is a great opportunity for our students to take their newly-acquired catering skills to a prestigious food production school and gain constructive criticism for their work from some of the UK’s top artisan chefs.
“This is the second year our students have visited Welbeck for this exciting challenge and it allows them to work with produce they may never have cooked with before.”
The prize for the winning team is a one-day course at the school covering techniques in areas such as cheese-making, patisserie, butchery, confectionery and baking.
The School of Artisan Food is the UK’s only education-provider offering diploma qualifications in baking, butchery and cheese-making. The school, which opened in 2009, also hosts a wide programme of one-day courses.
