GCSE Food Technology students at St Gregory’s are, once again, celebrating success as they received a new Kitchen Aid Food Mixer, worth almost £600 as a result of their success at the Sodexo Food Show last term.
Catering Manager at St Gregory’s, Tracey Millard, presented Year 10 and 11 students with their award for winning the Sodexo Schools Catering Competition, held at the Sodexo Food Show in October. The competition was an opportunity for students to show off their catering skills, designing and creating their own show-stopping cake recipe for a panel of professional chefs to judge.
The winning team of Natalie G and Wiktoria R made a delicious chocolate and coffee cake that wowed judges, including celebrity chef, James Tanner. They were awarded a gold medal and certificate for their hard work and creative cooking skills. The professional food mixer will further enhance the facilities in the Food Technology suite at St Gregory’s and enable students to practise their culinary skills using state of the art equipment that they would find in a professional catering environment.
Students from St Gregory’s were invited by Sodexo to attend the event, held at Ascot Racecourse, as part of their on-going commitment to provide a high quality catering service to young people that goes beyond school catering to support and enhance students’ learning whilst creating memorable experiences that promote the catering industry and showcase the many opportunities on offer to young people.
Whilst there, students were able to tour the catering facilities at Ascot Racecourse, taste a variety of foods and flavours in their ‘street market’, and take part in a series of workshops and demonstrations facilitated by a number of celebrity chefs and professional restaurateurs including James Tanner and England Rugby World Cup winner, Matt Dawson.
Tracey congratulated the students on their achievements at the Sodexo Food Show, commenting, “The students have done really well to win this award and should be very proud of their achievements. They are an incredibly talented group of young chefs and I know that they will have gained a lot from the experience. A huge ‘well done’ from the Sodexo team!”
Natalie and Wiktoria, were thrilled to receive the prize on behalf of the school. They will sit their GCSEs later this year and have high aspirations to continue their studies in the field of health, social care and child care, using the knowledge they have gained in their Food Technology course to support them in their journey. Natalie will continue her post-16 education before she hopes to train as a Norland Nanny, whilst Wiktora has ambitions to train as a paediatric nurse and work in the healthcare sector.
Headmistress, Ann Cusack, said, “I am delighted that our students were able to attend this prestigious event enabling them to engage with professionals in their field and learn from the very best. St Gregory’s is a school that continues to provide exceptional opportunities to all children, both in and outside of the classroom, and this is just one example of this. We aim to inspire our students to achieve their ambitions and what better way to learn about the world of work than from those who have achieved such success.”
