College cook-off gives food for thought

A GROUP of Catering and Hospitality students from South Essex College’s Thurrock and Southend Campuses faced off against each other in a fabulous battle of culinary cunning as they chopped, sliced, boiled and served like they never had before for the title of the first ever South Essex College Fairtrade Cook-Off.

There had been catering competitions before but this was the first time that it was one set of Catering and Hospitality students pitted against another and the two sets of students really cooked up a storm.

Adding to the pressure was the fact that none of the students knew any of the ingredients, all of which were Fairtrade, they would be given until 30 minutes before the start of the competition which helped give it that extra dimension of difficulty, but for the students, many who have worked in industry as part of their course, it didn’t phase them in the slightest.

One of those students who could stand the heat and stayed in the kitchen was Josh Wright, 20, Grays. The Level 3 Catering and Hospitality student said of the experience: “It was good to see what the Southend students do and equally for them to see what we do over in Thurrock. It was good fun seeing our different styles of presentation. Today was really good because it was against the clock; if you didn’t get it done you didn’t send any food any out but I’m used to that as I work in London.”

“There was a lot of pressure as we didn’t know what ingredients we were going to be given so we had to think on our feet. I perform my best under pressure, I think every chef does but I like pressure, I can deal with it and I think today that showed. Never at any stage was I panicking because I’ve worked in the best.”

“Coming to South Essex College I’ve had the opportunity to work at the Emirates Stadium under Raymond Blanc, a two Michelin star chef, as well working with the Galvin brothers in Bistrot de Luxe in Baker Street. The Galvin brothers are also Michelin starred chefs and were taught in this very building by the same chef that I was taught by which is really cool.”

With four teams, two from each Campus, there really were no margins for error during the three course extravaganza which was presided over by Thurrock Councillor Dianna Hale, Southend Councillor Nigel Folkard, Ryan Donovan who owns the Affinity 1777 restaurant in Leigh-on-Sea and Michael Casey from Your Thurrock, who had the envious but difficult task of tasting the food and delivering those all important points.

In the end it was a close run thing with only a couple of points separating the victors, a team from the Thurrock Campus took the culinary crown, comprising of Paul Burton, 18, from Aveley, Jordan Morris, 16, from Chafford Hundred and Damien Weatherall, 18, from Basildon, each winning a set of top-of-the-range kitchen knives as well as those all important bragging rights!

Their mouth-watering Fairtrade menu included a Thai broth as the starter and buttered poached chicken with braised red cabbage, smashed mash, textured shallot and white whine foam for the main course. The meal was completed with a dessert of chocolate fondant with crème anglaise jelly.

Rob Telford, Chef Lecturer at the Thurrock Campus, commented: “What the students have achieved and got out of today is the pressure of the trade that they’re all training for and competition work is always a bit more pressure than most. It’s also been good for them to work with their peers from the other campuses and get a cross reference of what each other do so it’s been successful on all levels. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to go over to Southend.”

He added: “It was great for the Thurrock Campus to win as it’s nice to know that they do take on what you teach them but all the teams did a great job and it was very close, there was only about two points in second and third place.”

The Thurrock Campus Catering and Hospitality students have thrown down the first gauntlet, or should that be oven glove, but no doubt the Southend students will already be planning their culinary comeback for next year’s competition to ensure they are a cook above.