Member Article

Knives at the ready for final Eat! Festival cook off

Students from two of the region’s catering colleges join local professional chef de parties for a cook off which brings EAT! – NewcastleGateshead’s first ever food and drink festival – to a close this week. Six students from Newcastle Catering College and North Tyneside College have joined forces with some of the best kitchen brigades in NewcastleGateshead for YES CHEF – a Ready Steady Cook-style competition designed to highlight emerging talent in the local food industry.

In recent weeks the student apprentices have worked alongside a partner Chef de Partie gaining skills and confidence to help them compete in the YES CHEF event taking place at Newcastle Catering College today. To ensure the competition is as challenging as possible the young chefs have each been given a limited list of ingredients to work with – including regional additions such as North East air-dried ham, seasonal rhubarb and locally caught mackerel. A panel of local food experts will judge the final dishes, and the winning chef will win a specially commissioned glass plate trophy as well as a trip to the famous Borough food market in London.

Simon Preston, EAT! NewcastleGateshead Festival director, said: “EAT! was not just about encouraging people to enjoy the very best local food and drink the region has to offer, it was also very much about raising the status of the food industry as an exciting rewarding career opportunity and raising standards amongst those who want to work in the sector. YES CHEF helps showcase the emerging talent that exists here and hopefully inspires those taking part to go on to even bigger and better things.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .