Sara Franklin, our chef working at the Campion School in Northampton, has been announced as the East Midlands regional winner of the School Chef of the Year 2019 competition organised by LACA, the lead association for catering in education.
The East Midlands round was held on January 10th and saw contestants working against the clock to produce their dishes for the judging panel, which had to include four portions of a main course and a dessert suitable for serving to 11-year-old school children.
Despite only having 90 minutes to work with, Sara kept her cool to produce a delicious chicken and sweet potato tikka masala main with lime and coriander rice, as well as a side of cumin and ginger naan bread. For dessert, Sara made a lemon and sultana sponge with lemon frosted topping. These two dishes proved the winning combination seeing her progress to the national finals, which will be held in Stratford Upon Avon on March 7th.
Rebecca Bridgement, Managing Director of Radish, commented: “We are all thrilled to see Sara reach the final round of this prestigious competition. It’s not easy to cook against the clock, less still when you have a panel of judges watching over you, yet she’s produced some fantastic dishes and showed what Radish is trying to achieve, not only in education but other sectors too. Fingers crossed for some more good news in March”.
LACA represents some 1,000 catering managers and suppliers, providing three million lunches in 22,000 schools every single day. For more information, visit www.laca.co.uk.
