At our recent Open Evening, Year 10 students Esme, Jasmine, Jess, Ellis, Jude and Olly, took part in the first round, the Local Heat, of the Rotary Club Young Chef Competition 2023/24, sponsored by the North Cotswolds Rotary Club. The competition enables entrants to put their culinary skills to the test and to be judged by leading industry professionals.

There are four stages of the competition and, with over 40 initial entries from Year 10 Food and Preparation GCSE groups, Miss Lamb and Mr Smith then had the hard task of whittling the entries down to 6 contestants!

As part of the competition, each student planned and cooked a 3-course meal, with the competition aiming to encourage young people to; learn how to cook a healthy meal; develop their food presentation skills; consider food hygiene issues; develop organisational and planning skills; and develop an ability to cope in a demanding situation.

With a two hour preparation time, working within a budget, all of our students created amazing mouth-watering meals. Judges included renowned Private Chef Kuba Winkowski, Head Chef at The Dial House Alex Breach and members of the Rotary Club.

The food was all of a very high calibre and looked and smelt delicious!

Overall winner Esme wowed the judges with her menu, as did Jasmine who was announced runner-up.

Esme’s winning menu consisted of; a main course of baked cod loin, roasted tomatoes on the vine, salsa verde and parmentier potatoes; finishing with a dessert of raspberry coulee, griddled peach, mascarpone, dark chocolate ganache, topped with a mint leaf.

Esme will go onto represent the school in the District Final on Saturday 3 February 2024.

Mr Smith said, “I was so proud of the dishes that everyone produced, everyone worked so hard. The parents walking around on Open Evening were full of compliments about how well the students were working. Alex from The Dial House was that impressed he said they could come work for him, something Esme wanted in writing!”

“To cook under pressure is hard, to cook under pressure whilst on display on Open Evening is even harder. Every contestant should be very, very proud of what they achieved.”

“Thank you to the North Cotswolds Rotary and to all of our judges, and a huge well done to all competitors – it was not an easy competition, especially on Open Evening, but you should all be extremely proud!”