Boys cook up a storm

For the past two terms, Oliver Ashley (K), Edward Newland (E) and Egor Provkin (B) have been studying many aspects of food, costing, preparation and management under the careful tuition of Peter Bailey (Health and Safety), Virginia Bird (Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme), Jackie Williams (Chartwells General Manager) and Executive Chef Michael Hodges as their Bronze skill for the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

As a culmination of this, they hosted a dinner for 30 on Tuesday 27 March in the Pavilion. They invited their families, some teachers, friends, the Bursar, Peter Bailey and Jackie Williams, as well as special guest Sandra Kenton, the Managing Director from Chartwells. Guests received beautiful invitations and arrived to a warm welcome from the three aspiring chefs.

Table plans were carefully mixed so that a unique combination of people from many parts of our community sat around the table together. The food was outstanding – spiced butternut squash soup sip, melon with parma ham, breast of chicken with red pepper mousse on dauphinoise potatoes, with mini broad beans and fine green beans. To finish they enjoyed a delicious plum tart tartin with cinnamon ice cream, coffee and home made truffles.

There were a couple of short speeches; chef Michael Hodges received a bottle of champagne from the boys and they received framed food safety certificates as well as Gary Rhodes cookery books. So watch out for these names on the next Masterchef classes!