Turning up the heat for the FutureChefs competition
Foxes, Boveridge College and Hedgeway held their in-house FutureChefs competitions recently to decide which student chefs will be going forward to the final competition which will be held at Weston College, Weston-super-Mare, on 23 February.
Springboard FutureChef is a national schools-based competition designed to kick start culinary careers.
The national competition doesn’t currently have a SEND category, so last year Foxes worked with Springboard and Sodexo (event sponsors) to run their own competition and this year we have three services entering.
Students were asked to complete four plates of food of – a starter and main or main and desert, within a budget of £30.
Judging
Michael Taylor, Learning and Development Manager for Sodexo, has supported with setting up the competition at Aurora. He’s been a Springboard Ambassador (winning Ambassador of the Year 2023) for around eight years supporting with the FutureChef competition but also helping Springboard attract more people from all backgrounds into catering. He was one of the judges, along with two others from the hospitality industry at each service.
A surprise judge at Foxes was former student Cameron Corrick who’s now working at prestigious hotel and restaurant, The Pig at Combe.
The judges were thoroughly impressed with the quality of the food and technical abilities, with some saying “I would buy this dish in a restaurant”. The sense of achievement students felt was clearly evident and they couldn’t wait to share their good news.
Students were judged on:
• Workmanship skills and techniques (20 points)
• Creativity and presentation (10 points)
• Composition, taste and flavour (20 points)
These are the same criteria used in the national competition.
Well done to them all, and good luck to the finalists who will compete again on 23 February.
