Tanya Watkin of Woodland Middle Academy School in Flitwick, Bedfordshire has won LACA’s School Chef of the Year 2014 competition. She won through from among nine regional winners at the final held at Food Services Wing, Defence Logistics School, Worthy Down near Winchester, Hampshire. Tanya claimed her place in the national final for the third time after winning the Eastern regional final held Barnfield College, Luton back in January. The competition, organised annually by LACA, is sponsored by MAGGI® from Nestlé Professional.
Tanya served up to judges a main course of Spanish chicken cocido (chicken, vegetable and chickpea stew flavoured with saffron served with chorizo tortilla and rustic bread) followed by Crema de Sant Josep (madeleine sponge baked in citrus caramel egg custard served with orange, strawberry and mint salsa).
This celebrated annual competition aims to show the high quality of school meals to parents and the important contribution they can make to not only the health and wellbeing of their children but also their physical and educational attainment.
The contestants are scored on their preparation, cooking, creativity and presentation skills. Each entrant is required to produce a healthy, balanced two-course meal comprising a main course and dessert designed to appeal to eleven-year-olds in school. A maximum of £1.60 is allowed.
With the competition rules requiring recipes to reflect the global influences on school meals and the ethnic and cultural mix of a school’s pupil population, competition sponsor, MAGGI® from Nestlé Professional has included an extensive selection of its products in the competition basket to help contestants’ enhance the creativity of their menus. Products include MAGGI® Liquid Concentrated Fonds, MAGGI® Coconut Milk Powder, MAGGI® Devil’s Jam and MAGGI® Rich & Rustic Tomato Sauce among many more. The contestants are required to incorporate a minimum of two MAGGI® products in their main course and any Nestlé product can be used in their dessert.
Pictured; Tanya Watkin, LACA National Chair Carianne Bishop, Nestlé Food Development Chef Justin Clarke.
