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Last Thursday 2 December, Southern Regional College’s Newry campus hosted the County Armagh heat of Springboard’s FutureChef Competition. The competition saw students from local schools compete to represent their county at the Northern Ireland finals.
The FutureChef competition is an opportunity for students aged between 11 and 16 to show off their culinary talents, help grow their confidence and further their career in the hospitality industry. Many of these students come to SRC to take part in the School Partnerships Programme.
The competition involved each student creating a main course dish in under 60 minutes using a budget of £5.00. Five students including Callum McElarney from St Pauls High School Bessbrook and Colleen Ferguson from St Marks High School Warrenpoint, competed against each other to win a place at the Northern Ireland Finals.
The judging panel included Geoff Baird, Business Development Chef at Henderson Group, Colleen Lennon, Chef Owner at The Oliver Restaurant Newry and Stephen Megaw, a former SRC SPP and Level 3 Professional Cookery Student and bronze WorldSkills medal winner. All three judges remarked on the exceptional talent these young people have and said their decision to narrow it down to one winner was extremely tough!
Special congratulations to Faith Belshaw from Newtownhamilton High School who was awarded First Place for her delicious cottage pie. Faith will now compete in the Northern Ireland Finals on Thursday 10th February in Belfast Metropolitan College.
Well done to all five finalists. Each student was fantastic and presented wonderful dishes under time constraints – we may have found some future local chefs!
For further information on our School Partnership Programme, please click here: WWW.SRC.AC.UK
