A Passion to Inspire Cookery Competition - the outcome

Suffolk New College was the host for this year’s final of the catering competition “A Passion to Inspire”. Following the preliminary rounds at the regional colleges (Colchester Institute, Cambridge Regional College, Suffolk New College and West Suffolk College) 8 teams, whittled down from 41 students, came through to the final heat. The Catering competition is the idea of Master Chef of Great Britain, Murray Chapman who has also acted as mentor during the planning stages of the competition.

The focus of the competition was based around Chef and Front of House Teams. It was based upon teams of two working together to produce a two course lunch to include a main course and a dessert, accompanied with a choice of wine for each course.  The teams choose a theme, and had to think about the delivery and the Gueridon service.

We are pleased to announce that the teams from Suffolk New College won a Gold and Bronze achievement. Winners of the gold achievement were: Simon Jam and Charlie Parker who won one week’s work experience at the highly acclaimed Michelin Starred ‘Burlington Restaurant in Yorkshire’, along with certificates and chef whites, they produced a fantastic menu of pan seared local scallops with a salmon ravioli, cray fish foam and fresh basil pesto for main followed by a dessert of white chocolate, coconut and apple soup with an apple jelly and pistachio sponge. The bronze achievement went to Jemma Gooding and Daniel Flory. Along with chef whites and certificates they won tickets to the Skills for Chefs Conference with accommodation and food. They also served up a fantastic winning menu using local fresh produce.

Gold winners Simon and Charlie said: “It has been a great achievement to win this competition, it has given us the opportunity to work with some fantastic chefs and even potential employers. It has really helped us with aspiring to be the best chef and the work experience at Burlington Restaurant will be a great experience at the end of our course. We are both due to complete our NVQ3 in Professional Cookery in June and we look forward to going out and working in our chosen areas.”

Susan Jeffrey, Curriculum Centre Head for Catering and Hospitality said: “To receive an honour like this in such an early stage of their career is really worth celebrating. The students put in so much hard work to achieve this and they should be incredibly proud, to have a Michelin starred chefs commend them for their work is fantastic.”