Durrington High School: Rotary Young Chef of the Year.

08-Oct-08 - Just in case you missed out on this particular competition (amongst the many others) it's an initiative by Rotary clubs up and down the country to encourage young people (age 12-15) to take an interest in cooking, with an emphasis on healthy and affordable food. It starts in local schools, progresses to a regional heat, and then goes forward to a national final, and this was the first heat, in the Food Technology department of Durrington High: a magnificent complex of three rooms each with cookers, sinks, fridges and working-surface workstations. The contestants had to cook a main course and, a week later, a dessert, ideally using locally available and seasonal ingredients. I was invited to take part by Andy Sparsis of the Proto Restaurant Group (who has generously sponsored my radio programme on Splash FM for the past 2 years), who was the chief judge, assisted by his head chef Stuart Slevin. What we were looking for in the participants was more than just the quality of the food and the originality of the recipe, but also their style: creativity, hygiene, presentation, enthusiasm, and indefinable quality of ambition - are they prepared to go out on a limb to create something really different?

The main course event was the previous week with 18 participants and some seriously ambitious recipes. Particularly memorable for me were home-made lamb-burgers, some excellent pasta dishes, and a fillet of cod on pea purée with deep-fried battered parsnip. The hardest thing, as ever was to choose the final eight to go through to the dessert round the following week. In the end both Andy and I chickened out and let Stuart read the list. By this time the room was full of parents and we were worried that we might be in trouble but, of course, this is Worthing and everything was very polite and civilised. Andy dropped me at FOOD restaurant, where Jill was dining with our neighbour Sheila, as a thanks for looking after the house for us when we're away. I joined them but, having just sampled 18 main courses, I contented myself with a cold beer (and a bottle of Muscadet - Château la Touche. I'll tell you about that one day). I did manage a small sandwich before going to bed.

The following week it was the final eight with their desserts. The style ranged from good old-fashioned home cooking (apple crumble with cinnamon and custard!) To some pretty impressive ideas. In the event and after even more headbanging between us, we came up with the two who will go forward to the regional final in January next year. First was Jack Bowden, aged 13, who turned out in full chef's whites, check trousers and skull cap and produced a dark chocolate and raspberry confection served in giant teacups, with fabulous scroll biscuits and fresh cream. The biscuits were the clincher: beautifully crisp on the outside and meltingly soft within. Second was 14-year-old Serena Jayne Moriarty, who won the Guild of Food Writers Cookit! competition for young chefs earlier this year, and was featured on my programme on Splash FM in June. She produced an ice dessert with fresh raspberries on shortbread which was superb but suffered a bit of a collapse under the lights. However, she had scored so highly on the main course night that she, too went through to the next round. It was (yes, yes, cliché alert) a pity that we had to reject anybody after such a magnificent effort, but that is life. All the finalists got a copy of the latest issue of YES CHEF! Magazine (now available in a newsagent near you) and Jack and Serena got a signed copy of COOK ESPAÑA, DRINK ESPAÑA! (now available in a bookshop near you). Both of them had told us that they wanted to be chefs when they grow up, and we wished them all the luck in the world. It is so reaffirming to see young people so dedicated to the craft. More on the competition after the next round in January.