Suffolk College Students Win The Royal Navy Catering Competition - 18 February 2004

This is a competition that is set up by The Royal Navy and has been running for 3 years. It is for students working towards a NVQ Level 2 qualification. The competition was hosted at Suffolk College and was held in The Spritsail Restaurant.

Three colleges entered the competition: Suffolk College, West Suffolk and Chelmsford. The brief of the competition was that the students had to produce a meal for four people at lunchtime consisting of a seafood starter, a chicken main course dish and a cold dessert. The students had 3 hours to prepare the food. They worked in teams of four, three chefs and one front of house.

Prior to the competition the judges came into all three colleges and worked with all the level 2 students for a day doing demonstrations, etc., and explaining what they will be looking for on the day.

The students were judged by Royal Navy chefs and the guests eating the foods included the Mayor of Ipswich, the Mayor of Bury and guests of the marines. The judges were marking against criteria such as the presentation, flavour and quality of the food produced, the front of house skills, the knowledge of the waiter in relation to the wines served etc. The Health & Safety aspects, clean working practices and the teamwork/communication skills shown.

The quality of the food produced from all the teams was outstanding and the judges said “it was one of the hardest things they have had to do for a long time” however in all of these events there has to be a winner and I am very pleased to say we were the overall winners on the day.

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Prior to the competition the students worked very closely with our new instructor Janet Cappleman and had lots of support from Janet and their personal tutor Peter Minchell . It involved lots of personal time and commitment from everybody concerned and there were almost tears on occasion, however everyone involved thoroughly enjoyed the experience and have achieved a great sense of pride, the entrants get the opportunity of sailing on HMS Grafton and all received certificates of merit from the Navy.

ENDS

NOTES FOR EDITORS

For further information please contact:

Christine Chatburn, Curriculum Centre Manager

Tel: 01473 296544

Email: christine.chatburn@suffolk.ac.uk

Issued by Promotions

18 February 2004