Celebrity Chef Visits Catering Students

The Aylesbury College team, celebrity chef Brian Turner, and competitors. Jordan Powell (fourth left) from The Forest School was the winner and goes through to the final in London. Left to right: Karen Mitchell, Principal of Aylesbury College with celebrity chef Brian Turner

Aylesbury College’s catering team played host to the Regional Final of a nationwide culinary programme run by The Springboard Charity recently. Seven competitors used the College’s facilities to prepare a main course and dessert in just 1 hour and 30 minutes and with a budget of just £10.00! The College’s catering students helped to set up and run the competition on the day.

Celebrity chef Brian Turner, one of the judges in the Final competition, called in to see how the students were getting along at this stage. He commented: “It’s been a fantastic day with such high quality food being produced. Everyone gives their all and you can see how much it means to the competitors. We’re seeing the future of the catering industry”.

Fred Reader, Chef Lecturer Aylesbury College explained: “We’ve been working with Springboard for several years now. We pride ourselves on training and producing young chefs into the workplace via our commercial outlet, Hardings Restaurant. We welcome opportunities like this to be involved in encouraging the next generation of chefs”.

Judges for this round of the competition included: Luke Matthews: Executive Chef, Chewton Glen Hotel; Carlo Tolu: Area Head Chef, Oakman Inns and Restaurant Hotel; Dale Robins: Head Chef, Graysons Restaurants; Colin Wheeler-James, Sodexo; Rhodri Williams, Executive Sous Chef, Le Manoir.