2:50pm Wednesday 7th July 2010
Pupils Jack Newbery and Kenan Pawley from Bay House School in Gosport have won the 2010 Create and Cook Hampshire schools cookery competition.
Eight finalists from secondary schools across Hampshire fought it out to win the coveted award last Thursday at the finals, held as part of July’s Hampshire Food Festival at Newlyns Cookery School near Hook.
Their task was to impress the judges with original menus inspired by the use of local produce. Jack and Kenan cooked and served free range chicken roulade stuffed with home-made pesto and roasted peppers, followed by an assortment of local berry cheesecakes.
Min Raisman, organiser of Create and Cook said: “There was a strong line-up of dishes cooked including local pork stuffed with oregano and figs, fragranced River Test trout parcels with sesame noodles, home grown strawberry tart and Hampshire watercress soup. Jack and Kenan’s menu most impressed the judges and was cooked with great skill.”
“The chicken roulade was beautifully flavoured and the attention to detail was superb, enthused Phil Ponsonby, chief operating officer for The Southern Co-operative which sponsored the competition and who was one of the judges.
“But what set Jack and Kenan apart from the other fantastic young cooks was their knowledge of their ingredients and knowing where the food came from and how it was produced. They even grew their own basil. It was very impressive”.
Jack and Kenan were thrilled to win and were presented with the fit2cook pestle and mortar trophy and a cheque for £700 for the food technology department at Bay House School. “We are completely over the moon to have won” said Kenan. “I put my heart and soul into today and the food has come up top. I think our secret weapon was the amazing basil bush we grew for our home-made pesto,” said Jack.
The runners up were Aliyah Nesbeth and Emma Wedgwood from The Clere School near Newbury, Callum Mousley and Josselyn Arundell from Henry Beaufort School in Winchester and Georgia Sheppard and Eloise Robinson from The Wavell School, Farnborough.
Jack and Kenan’s winning menus are on the fit2cook website fit2cook.co.uk. You can also see the boys cooking their winning dishes at the Winchester Farmers’ Market on Sunday, July 25.
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