Photo – last year’s winner Tom Souter (photo by Fergus Burnett)
Talented pupils from schools across Great Britain and Ireland will be tantalising the taste buds in the grand final of Rotary Young Chef on Saturday 2 May.
The budding young chefs, aged 17 and under, will each cook a healthy three-course meal for two people in two hours with a budget of just £14.
To reach the grand final, each entrant beat off stiff competition local and regional competitions organised by local Rotary clubs which saw some 4,000 pupils taking part.
Now in its ninth year, the Rotary Young Chef Competition was created to give young people across the UK and Ireland the chance to display their creative talents with food, while discovering the importance of healthy eating.
Hoping to prove they can stand the heat in the kitchen, this year’s eight competitors are:
• Ian Robertson, 16, (Glenrothes)
• Jason Curia, 13, (Northallerton)
• Rebecca Mandall, 15, (Welwyn Garden City)
• Jonathan James Pulvertaft, 12, (Chichester)
• Hailey Vickers, 16, (Dorchester)
• Jonathan Monk, 14, (Stourbridge)
• Susan Pattinson, 15, (Wigton)
• Aimee Orr, 14, (County Down)
The winning meal will be picked by a panel of experienced judges – Sara Buenfield from BBC Goof Food Magazine, TV chefs Chris Tanner and Andrew Turner, Fifteen London chef Andrew Parkinson and Filippo Berio Marketing Manager Diana Anderson.
Rotary Young Chef is supported by Filippo Berio, renowned Olive Oil manufacturer, and the charity Fifteen Foundation. The victorious chef will win a trip for two to Tuscany to visit Filippo Berio’s amazing olive groves and sample the delights of Italian cuisine, as well as be treated to a one-day cookery session in the kitchen of Fifteen London restaurant.
Ends
20/04/09
Notes to editor
• Fifteen’s purpose is twofold: first to offer young people, often in need of a break, the experience of learning to work in the restaurant business and second, for our customers to enjoy fantastic food and knowledgeable customer service. The restaurant is the trading arm of a registered charity, Fifteen Foundation (no. 1094536), and its profits go towards a pioneering restaurant apprenticeship scheme. For more information, visit www.fifteen.net.
• Filippo Berio, based in Lucca, Tuscany, has been creating the finest quality olive oils since 1867 and is the UK’s best selling olive oil brand. Despite its global popularity, it’s a small, fully managed by a single Italian family. The company is passionately committed to the very best of Italy’s culinary heritage and to the highly skilled art of olive oil blending. Which is why to this day, every batch of olive oil is personally tasted. Filippo Berio’s passion for olive oil is shared by cooks across the world who rely on its superb quality to bring out the very best in their foods.
• Rotary was founded in 1905 in Chicago and is now the world’s largest international service organisation with 1.2 million professional men and women as members. There are 32,000 clubs in 200 countries and geographical areas. There are 1,845 Rotary clubs in Great Britain and Ireland with 57,000 volunteers raising money for their communities and carrying out humanitarian work both at home and abroad. Rotary initiates local and global projects to promote world understanding and peace and improve life conditions for people of all ages and cultures.
20/04/09
