School Chef of the Year 2010

3rd March 2010, 11:36am

This year’s search for the best school chef continues, with results coming in from regional heats in the East Midlands and the Eastern Region to provide two more.

Joining the winners of the North East and Scotland and Yorkshire & Humber regional heats are two more successful competitors in the 2010 School Chef of the Year competition organised by the Local Authority Caterers' Association (LACA) and sponsored by Maggi from Nestle Professional.

Tracey Winfield, who's employed by Derbyshire County Council Catering Service and works at Alfreton Grange Arts School, won the East Midlands regional final, which took place at Charnwood Training Academy in Nottingham on February 2.

She cooked Hartington Pye, a pork loin, apple sauce and caramelised onion pastry slice, with seasonal vegetables and champ potato.

Her dessert was Sticky Licky Pudding (banana, date and orange pudding with banana and vanilla custard).

The Highly Commended Main Course went to John Morrey, who works at Sir Jonathan North C.C. School for City Catering (Leicester). He prepared Crispy Chicken Goujons with fresh pasta, ciabatta, salad leaves and cheese.

The Highly Commended Dessert went to Christine Foley, who is employed by Nottinghamshire County Council at Priestic Primary School. She cooked Chocolate Turrets (chocolate fondant with raspberries and crème fraiche).

Tanya Watkin triumphed at the Eastern Region final held at Tesco Development Kitchen in Cheshunt.

Tanya, who works for Eden Foodservice at Eaton Bray Lower School in Bedforshire, cooked Lamb and Filo Scrunchy, served with redcurrant and herb sauce, stuffed new potatoes and summer roasted vegetables, followed by Wholemeal Chocolate Cake with a strawberry compote.

The Highly Commended Main Course was produced by Annette Newman, who's Chicken Ballotine consisted on a de-boned, stuffed chicken thigh served with duchess potatoes and vegetable ribbons. She works for Herefordshire County Council at Roger de Clare School.

The Highly Commended Dessert title was awarded to Hilary Hudson of Cambridgeshire Catering Services, who works at St. Mary & St. John Primary School.

She prepared Dark Secret Chocolate Muffin, to which she had added beetroot to bring out the flavour and increase the vegetable content of her overall meal.

The competition is open to all kitchen-based staff employed by organisations that are full members of LACA and are involved with the daily preparation of school meals.

This annual competition puts the preparation, cooking, creativity and presentation skills of school chefs to the test with each entrant 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 11-year-olds in school.

The dishes must conform to the National Food Based Nutritional Standards and can be made up of poultry, meat, fish and non-meat proteins. A maximum of £1.25 per head is set for main and dessert food cost.

For more details visit: www.laca.co.uk

Related Articles:

• 13 May 2010 - Suzanne Duncan new LACA School Chef of the Year