apetito hosts annual Masterchef competition

On Wednesday 28th April apetito welcomed three local schools to our development kitchen to battle it out in our annual Masterchef competition.

Year ten students from 12 schools were invited to take part in the competition, of which three were short listed – Frome Community College, St Augustines Catholic College in Trowbridge and Sheldon School in Chippenham.

The students were given a selection of ingredients when they arrived at apetito and challenged to design a three course menu in one hour. This year we saw a wide range of dishes including Thai Soup, Chicken Pinwheels with Sweet Potato, and Profiteroles with a Chocolate and Rhubarb Sauce amongst others.

Each school was allocated an apetito development chef and had just two hours to prepare their menu.  apetito’s team of judges were absolutely wowed by this year’s standard:
“Every year participants are raising the bar, but today’s menus were outstanding in terms of the thought and presentation that went into the dishes” commented judge Phil Rimmer, Head Development Chef, apetito.

Sheldon School’s menu of Thai Soup, Meatballs with Tomato Pasta Sauce and Profiteroles with Chocolate Sauce and Rhubarb was crowned the unanimous winner for its well balanced flavours and restaurant quality presentation.

Sheldon School were thrilled to take home the prize:
“All in all it was a really fun day, getting to see inside the factory and working in a real kitchen. We worked well as a team and managed to keep laughing – It was a brilliant opportunity for the students to get a real insight into the food industry and the different career avenues they could decide to follow".

All participants received a cookbook, with Amazon vouchers and £1000 for the jubilant winners, who hope to return and retain their title in 2011!