Princethorpe’s FutureChefs Showcase Their Culinary Skills

The school’s first-round heats took place after school on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 October with nine contestants from Years 7 to 10 tasked with cooking and serving up a main meal in just one hour.

The FutureChef competition challenges young people aged 12 to 16 to cook their way through a series of rounds, gaining experience, meeting professionals and developing their skills, all while getting an insight into the culinary industry.

All our would-be chefs wowed the judges, Jacqui Scott, Grove du Toit, Michael Spencer and Beth Sharpe, with their culinary creations. It was a hard decision to choose between them and the judges deliberated carefully as they argued the pros and cons of first one dish and then another. Emily Divers took first place with a beautiful mushroom risotto, but the judges just could not agree on second place. In the end they decided that there would have to be a further heat to decide whether Jasper Nicholls, Chloe Iley or Mia Williams would be the second contestant to go forward to the next round.

The cook-off took place this week, on Tuesday 5 November, when Jasper, Chloe and Mia had 30 minutes to produce an autumn-themed dessert. Previous FutureChef Regional winner, Sophie Henry joined Grove du Toit and Jacqui Scott to judge the puddings and they all agreed that Chloe Iley had managed to hold her nerve and deliver a delicious dessert to take the second place in the Warwickshire final.

Teacher of Food Technology, Jacqui Scott, said, “There was so much enthusiasm and skill shown by this year's contestants. Pupils cooked food to be proud of in a very short period of time. It was really very difficult to pick our winners and I’m excited to see how far Emily and Chloe can go in the competition.”

Well done to all who took part, you all produced fabulous plates of food.