TV Chef James Martin judges Young Chef Challenge

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Celebrity Chef and TV presenter, James Martin, visited The Manchester College’s Moston campus on Thursday 20 January to judge the regional finals of the Quality Standard beef and lamb Young Chef Challenge.

The Quality Standard Young Chef Challenge is a competition, launched by EBLEX (the organisation for the English beef and sheep industry) for school students aged between 11 -16 who are passionate about cooking. The challenge is designed to engage, educate and inspire students to get hands on cooking experience and appreciate the importance of good nutrition and quality ingredients.

The regional finals held at the training restaurant at Moston Campus comprised of two sessions, the first being students from the Midlands and the second from the north west. The students had only one hour to prepare, cook and plate up their own original recipe, which was then judged by celebrity chef James Martin, Howard Wallace, The Manchester College tutor and Denise Spencer-Walker, Food Advisor from EBLEX.

One student from each region was chosen as a regional finalist, they won an iPod touch and £250 vouchers for their school. They will now go through to the finals where they have the chance to win a behind the scenes tour of Saturday Kitchen, and lunch and dinner with James Martin at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

James Martin commented: ‘I got involved five years ago when the competition first evolved. I understood the real benefits of cooking at school and this competition provided kids with that extra opportunity and gives them a bit more freedom than they get at school.

‘Each year the competition gets bigger, in the first year there were 100 entries and now we get 1,000 entries. Kids that have previously been successful in this competition have gone onto a career in cooking.

‘The training restaurant at The Manchester College is great for this event. The facilities have changed over the years, now we have lots more equipment.’