Bistro East hosts Junior MasterChef

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This April, students from local secondary schools took part in The Manchester College’s first Junior MasterChef competition. The students, in teams of two, submitted menus which had to include a main course using chicken and a pastry based dessert. The teams with the best menus from each school were invited to prepare and cook their meal at the college’s Bistro East restaurant in just one and a half hours.

Six teams were chosen for the final including students from New Charter Academy, Manchester Academy and Fairfield High School for Girls. Once the teams had completed their dishes they were tasted by a judging panel including Peter Cox, vice principal at The Manchester College, Stewart Thomson, head chef at Harvey Nichols Manchester and Lee Woodend, chef tutor at The Manchester College.

The winners were announced in front of an audience of the students’ families and teachers. Luke Bicknell and Cameron Clare from New Charter Academy took first place with their menu of chicken wrapped in Parma ham on a bed of mash followed by a filo pastry basket stuffed with fresh berries and a pavlova lid. Second place went to Jamie Carew and Shamyra Abbott from Manchester Academy and third place to Hannah Wright and Grace Keane from Fairfield High School for Girls. First prize was a meal for two at the Second Floor restaurant donated by Harvey Nicholls, with other prizes of books and cooking equipment donated by Asda and Russums.

Event organiser and chef tutor at The Manchester College, Phil Deaville, said: ‘This is the first time this competition has been run and we hope to do it again next year. There were 60 entries of menus so the final six teams did very well to get picked. The students really impressed me and the technical standard was incredibly high, but the idea of the competition is really for the students to enjoy the experience and they definitely seemed to.’

Judge and head chef at Harvey Nichols Manchester, Stewart Thomson, said: ‘The standard was very good and there was a good mix of levels, it’s nice to see young people with an interest. I was particularly impressed with the blueberry and almond tart with crème anglaise, it was done perfectly and it’s a hard dish, even some of my own staff would have struggled!’