CREATIVE cooks served up a concoction of culinary creations to help find the best young chefs in the country.
Darlington College played host to the local finals of the Springboard FutureChef 2015 competition in which ten talented hopefuls, from across the north east, took up the challenge to showcase their cooking skills.
The annual nationwide initiative, run by The Springboard Charity, helps young people aged 12 to16 cook their way through a series of challenges providing invaluable lessons and insight into the culinary industry.
Darlington College catering tutor Becci Dougill, who judged the competition alongside Amy Lawson and Donna Jefferson of catering firm Taylor Shaw, said: “I have been involved in the FutureChef competition as a mentor for the last few years but this is the first time the competition has held one of its finals in our college.
“It’s wonderful to see young people with such a passion for cooking and I’ve been really impressed with their range of dishes and complex cooking skills.
“Having so many aspiring young chefs here at Darlington College is wonderful and hopefully some of them may come and study here in the future.”
Students William Bolsover, 15, of Kirkbie Kendal School, Cumbria, and Ceri Cooper, 14, of Durham Johnston School, claimed the two first place spots after impressing judges with their menus of roasted baby chicken with smoked paprika and roasted root vegetables and chicken cordon bleu with a toffee pudding dessert.
Both have now secured a place in the FutureChef regional final in a bid to go on to compete against the best young chefs in the country at the national finals at Westminster Kingsway College in London on March 23.
Springboard’s programmes manager Joanne Greenall said: “The Springboard FutureChef initiative is the biggest and most successful national school cooking programme in the UK.
“It inspires students to learn to cook, introduces them and their schools to well respected industry chefs, offers the opportunity to win fantastic prizes and gain anything from a valuable life skill to an informed career path into the UK’s leisure and hospitality industry.
“We have been delighted to host this years local final at Darlington College and have been extremely impressed with the fantastic facilities that have been made available to us.”
