Britain’s top ten school chefs will come face to face on 10 March to compete for the LACA School Chef of the Year 2016 national title, in what is expected to be a fiercely fought cook off.
The competition is the flagship event for school chefs to showcase their professional skills. It has been organised annually for over two decades by LACA (Lead Association for CAtering in Education) and is sponsored by MAGGI Professional from Nestlé Professional.
The ten finalists are the winners from the regional heats that took place nationwide between November 2015 – January 2016. The finalists, who come from across Britain, will battle it out for the education catering industry’s top award.
Once again in 2016, the preparation, cooking, creativity and presentation skills of school chefs have been put to the test. At all stages of the competition, each contestant has a maximum of £1.60 to spend and just one and a half hours to prepare their dishes.
They are required to produce a healthy balanced two-course meal comprising of a main course and dessert that would appeal to 11-year-olds in school. The nutritional content of contestants’ dishes had to comply with the new School Food Standards, as specified by the Government’s School Food Plan which was introduced in all schools in England in January 2015.
Despite the significant improvements that have taken place within school catering across Britain over the last decade, the competition is just as important now as ever before. Its key aims are to show to parents the high quality of school meals today and the contribution they not only make to the health and well-being of their children but also their physical and educational attainment.
The dishes of many of the Finalists have been inspired by cuisine stretching from the Americas to Europe, Asia and the Far East.
Dishes include: Chicken ‘Rundown’, Plantain Mash & Steamed Greens; Italian Chicken - chicken breast with bacon in a rich tomato sauce & Dauphinoise potatoes with a lemon & herb crust and a carrot & poppy seed salad; Swedish Lemon & Dill Chicken - stuffed chicken breast with yoghurt, dill & lemon served with a cheesy mash potato bake, and St Hilda’s Spicy Beef Pot, Caedmon Cross-Bread, Bram Stoker Sweet Corn & 199 Steps Croquettes.
Desserts, too, capture exotic flavours with intriguing spins on classic puddings as well as highly tempting new creations. They range from Spiced Pineapple Cake with Lime Custard; Courgette, Coconut & Lime Sponge and Chocolate & Caramel Dessert with Apple & Pears and a Vanilla Sauce to Dracula’s Bat-tastic Baked Lemon Cheesecake and Glorious Grecian Sticky Toffee Pudding.
Peter McGrath, LACA National Chair, commented, “LACA School Chef of the Year is a fantastic way of showing why every school should be striving for a high quality school meals service. When the Government brought in Universal Infant Free School Meals in England in September 2014, it was, at last, a real acknowledgement of the pivotal role school meals can play in laying the foundations for children’s future eating habits and their long term health.
'Our front line catering teams have been critical to the process of driving forward these improvements as well as educating young people about how food and eating better can help them achieve more both academically and physically. Not only do they prepare tasty and imaginative dishes to tempt discerning taste buds but also nutritious meals that can make a major contribution towards altering eating habits, improving diets and decreasing obesity levels.
'All of the contestants who have taken part this year should be inspirational role models for the food and beverage service in every school nationwide. Good luck to all of our 2016 National Finalists”.
MAGGI Brand Manager, Jason Rodriques added, “School chefs work tirelessly to provide children with appetising, nutritious meals, all within incredibly tight budgets, and everyone who has taken part in this year’s competition should be very proud of their achievements.”
Chair of the 2016 National Final Judging Panel is Justin Clarke, Food Development Chef for MAGGI at Nestlé Professional. Also, professional chef judge - Christopher Basten, Chairman, Craft Guild of Chefs, an education catering professional - Jacqui Webb, LACA, plus a leading dietitian - Jasmine Challis, British Dietetic Association, and the 2015 LACA School Chef of the Year, Kate Davies from Wales, and finally an 11-year-old boy and girl from a local West Midlands school.