Year 10 Showcases Culinary Skills in FutureChef Competition

At Claires Court, Food Preparation and Nutrition is available as a GCSE option and this week, our Year 10 GCSE students took part in the school heats for the national FutureChef competition.

FutureChef is a culinary competition run by the charity Springboard for those up to the age of 16 across the whole of the UK. Now in its 25th year, FutureChef aims to inspire chefs of the future and we want to encourage that too!

This week’s two day competition was part of a four-stage process where two students per school undertake the challenge to represent the school in the local area heat.  

The competition takes place in four stages:

• School heat in October / November  - Two students per school gain entry to the local area heat
• Area heat in November /December - Two winners are allocated a mentor chef and win a place at the regional heat
• Regional heat in January /February - Area heat winner progresses to the National Final
• National Final in March- Finalists head to London

Previously, Claires Court has had students progress to the regional stages and work with many amazing mentor chefs including Ruth Hansom, former Master Chef of Great Britain and Young National Chef of the Year.

Due to the increase in students and boys taking GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition this year, we had three school heats with a total of 30 boys and girls competing. The competition formed part of their GCSE lessons and will help to prepare them for their coursework next year; a three hour practical exam where they will prepare, cook and present a three course meal.  In this School Heat our students planned, prepared and presented a main course meal for two people with a suggested budget of £5 and a cooking time of one hour. They were judged on a variety of criteria including Workmanship, Skills and Techniques; Creativity and Presentation; Composition Taste and Flavour. 

We are delighted to announce that the three heat winners were:

• Tayte Fahey with sticky fried chicken and rice 
• Max Skelton with seabass, crushed potatoes, minted peas
• Alexa Hussein with chicken skewers, homemade flatbread, cucumber and tomato salsa

We will select two of the winning students to go on to the area heat competitions and we wish them the best of luck!

Kerry Irons, teacher of Food and Nutrition, remarked

We are very proud of every student who really pushed themselves out of their comfort zone to try out a range of new skills including filleting fish and making their own pasta. We also give a huge thank you to Wai Kee Tang from Leigh House Peking Restaurant, Beaconsfield who kindly judged all three heats and donated a dinner voucher for two to the winner. He was very impressed with the range of dishes produced and the attention to detail with some of the presentations. Many thanks to Mr Wilding, Mrs Thomas and Mrs 'O'Clee from the senior leadership team for their time judging a heat and supporting this competition.  

Some of our current and past Sixth Form students also assisted with the judging and, having been through this school heat competition process too, were able to empathise with the competitors and give a balanced view. Congratulations to all our students who won and to those who worked so hard to present their creations, we are looking forward to the next stage! To find out more about the FutureChef competition, visit the website here. 

Flickr album: FutureChef School Heat Year 10 2023 | Height: auto | Theme: Default | Skin: Default Skin