Britain’s top ten school chefs will come face to face on 21 May to compete for the LACA School Chef of the Year 2014 title in what is expected to be a fiercely fought cook off.
The Competition is organised annually by LACA (Lead Association for CAtering in Education) and is sponsored by MAGGI® from Nestlé Professional®. With the last of ten Regional Finals having been completed on 18 March, the final line up of ten school chefs going through to this year’s National Final is now known. All of the Finalists are winners from the regional heats, ten of which have been staged nationwide between January and March.
The Final and Finalists
The Final will take place once again at Food Services Wing, Defence Logistics School, Worthy Down near Winchester, Hampshire. The Finalists come from across Britain and will battle it out for the education catering industry’s top award. They represent the East Midlands; Eastern; London; North East & Scotland; North West; South East; South West; Wales; West Midlands and Yorkshire & Humber:
East Midlands School Chef of the Year 2014
Gail Boyce, Bolsover C of E Junior School, Bolsover (Derbyshire CC)
Eastern School Chef of the Year 2014
Tanya Watkin, Woodland Middle Academy School, Flitwick, Beds (Beds CC)
London School Chef of the Year 2014
Shereene Weston, St Mary Magdelen Catholic Primary School, Lewisham (LB of Lewisham)
North East & Scotland School Chef of the Year 2014
Bridget McCulla, Jarrow School, Tyne & Wear (S Tyneside Council)
North West School Chef of the Year 2014
Debbie Sidlow, Meadowbank Primary School, Manchester (Manchester City Council)
South East School Chef of the Year 2014
Alison Dombrick, Bentley Primary School, Bentley, Hampshire (HC3S)
South West School Chef of the Year 2014
Jodie Pearce, Wembury Primary School, Plymouth, (Devon Norse)
Welsh School Chef of the Year 2014
Kate Davies, St Gwladys Primary School, Bargoed (Caerphilly CBC)
West Midlands School Chef of the Year 2014
Vicky Brammer, Crescent Academy, Stoke on Trent (Stoke on Trent Council)
Yorks & Humber School Chef of the Year 2014
Katherine Breckon, Westcliffe CP School, Whitby (N Yorkshire CC)
The Competition
The annual Competition aims to show the high quality of school meals to parents and the important contribution they can make to not only the health and wellbeing of their children but also their physical and educational attainment.
The tough Competition criteria really put the preparation, cooking, creativity and presentation skills of school chefs to the test. Each entrant is required to produce, in just one and a half hours, a healthy balanced two-course meal comprising of a main course and dessert that would appeal to eleven year olds in school. A maximum of £1.60 is allowed for the cost of a single meal (i.e. main course and dessert) for one child.
With the Competition rules requiring recipes to reflect the global influences on school meals and the ethnic and cultural mix of a school’s pupil population, competition sponsor, MAGGI® at Nestlé Professional® has included an extensive selection of its products in the competition basket to help contestants’ enhance the creativity of their menus. The contestants are required to incorporate a minimum of two MAGGI® products in their main course and any Nestlé® product can be used in their dessert.
The judges
Chair of the Judging Panel at the 2014 National Final will be Justin Clarke, Food Development Chef for MAGGI® at Nestlé Professional®. Also on the Judging Panel is a professional chef judge, an education catering professional (Jacqui Webb, LACA), a leading dietician (Jasmine Challis, British Dietetic Association), the 2013 LACA School Chef of the Year, Corinne Du Preez from Berkshire, and an 11 year old boy and girl from a local Hampshire school.
Head of Food at Nestlé Professional®, Susan Gregory, commented: “With the biggest investment in school catering since 1945 as a result of free school meals, school dinners have risen even higher on the news agenda. LACA School Chef of the Year is an inspiring initiative and an important opportunity to showcase the talent and passion of the people who feed our nation’s children. Every year we are impressed by the chefs’ ability to create healthy, nutritious and tasty meals on a limited budget. It is a fantastic achievement to reach the final of the competition and we wish all of the finalists the very best of luck”.
About LACA
LACA stands for Lead Association for CAtering in Education. It is the leading professional body representing 750 Catering Managers in local authorities, private contractors, academies and individual schools who are providers of education catering services within primary and secondary schools throughout England, Wales and Scotland. There are also 350 Associate Members who are leading suppliers of food, drink, equipment and services to the education catering sector. With 135 Local Authorities represented in the membership, 80% of the catering service is provided by LACA Members and with around 3 million lunches being served every day in 22,000 schools, the LACA network is the largest provider of education catering in the country.
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