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Tanya Watkin, the 2014 Eastern Finalist, has taken the title of LACA School Chef of the Year 2014. She was voted Britain’s number one school chef by a panel of judges at the National Final held at the Foodservices Wing, Defence Logistics School, Worthy Down, Hampshire on 21 May.

The competition is organised annually by LACA (Lead Association for CAtering in Education) and is sponsored by Maggi from Nestlé Professional.

Tanya’s winning dishes were: Main Course:  Spanish Chicken Cocido - Chicken, vegetable and chickpea stew flavoured with saffron served with chorizo tortilla and rustic bread  Dessert: Crema de Sant Josep - Madeleine sponge baked in citrus caramel egg custard served with orange, strawberry and mint salsa. Tanya used Maggi Chicken Liquid Concentrated Fonds, Maggi Devil’s Jam and Maggi Vegetable Liquid Concentrated Fonds in her main course. She used Nestlé Docello Panna Cotta Mix in her dessert.

Tanya Watkin (40) works for Eden Foodservice under contract to Central Bedfordshire Council. Her base school is Woodland Middle School Academy in Flitwick, Bedfordshire but she operates as a Mobile Manager for the company. She prepares around meals for 4–13 year olds.

She started cooking at a young age and was always a keen baker at home. After leaving school, she went on to do a two-year catering course at Barnfield College, Luton. Over the years she has achieved a number of qualifications and awards, notably City & Guilds 706/1 & 2, NVQ 1 & 2 Cookery Basic and Advanced and Salon Culinaire Gold 2008/Silver 1996.

After completing her course, she started work for a London catering company as a commis chef. Over the next seven years, she worked in a number of different kitchens including as a pastry chef, a sous chef, and a head chef in that time.

Tanya had a break from work then to stay at home with her two girls who are now aged 14 and 12 years. While at home she made cakes and prepared buffets.

When the girls started school, she got involved in the PTA and started raising money for the school by organising fetes, writing books and running cookery demonstration evenings for the parents. She returned to work in 2006 at Eaton Bray Lower School.

The kitchen there had been closed for some time because of low take up but with the appointment of a new head teacher, Tanya as the new kitchen manager and a brand new home cooked menu, she raised the numbers from 20 a day to 70-plus.

She left Eaton Bray in 2011 and since then has operated as a mobile kitchen manager which she enjoys.

The winner of the Highly Commended Main Course prize was Shereene Weston from St Mary Magdalene’s Catholic Primary School, Lewisham, South East London for her dish of: Sticky Kicky Chicken – Spicy Chicken Thigh with roti bread, healthy slaw, sweet potato wedges and a pepper & lime salsa.

The winner of the Highly Commended Dessert prize was Bridget McCulla from Jarrow School, Tyne & Wear for her dish of Tropical Fruit Trio – a coconut infused steamed sponge pudding served with pineapple panna cotta and a warm mango sauce.

The Marketing Certificate of Merit went to Kate Davies from St Gwladys Primary School, Bargoed, Caerphilly. This award is made to acknowledge the creativity and efforts put into the display tables produced by the finalists as a backdrop to their dishes.

Service counter marketing is one of the eight judging criteria in the competition. Kate Davies won this category for her highly creative, educational and inspiring marketing table display, the theme of which related to her dishes - ‘A Taste of the East’.

The 10 LACA School Chef of the Year 2014 National Finalists came from across Britain and all work at the frontline of school catering, with first hand experience of the challenges of feeding both children and young people.

Demonstrating their cooking skills as well as how healthy and creative school meals are, is important to all the School Chefs.  This is why they feel taking part in the LACA School Chef of the Year  event is such a great opportunity to show just how much school meals have changed for the better.

The tough competition criteria really puts the preparation, cooking, creativity and presentation skills of school chefs to the test. Each entrant is required to produce, in just one and a half hours, a healthy balanced two-course meal comprising of a main course and dessert that would appeal to eleven year olds in school. A maximum of £1.60 is allowed for the cost of a single meal (i.e. main course and dessert) for one child.

With the competition rules requiring recipes to reflect the global influences on school meals and the ethnic and cultural mix of a school’s pupil population, competition sponsor, Maggi at Nestlé Professional has included an extensive selection of its products in the competition basket to help contestants’ enhance the creativity of their menus.

Products include Maggi Liquid Concentrated Fonds, such as Maggi Asian Liquid Concentrated Fonds, as well as Maggi Coconut Milk Powder, Maggi Devil’s Jam, and Maggi Rich & Rustic Tomato Sauce. Also included are Maggi Original Vegetarian Gravy, Maggi Mashed Potato Flakes, Maggi Béchamel Sauce, Docello Crème Brûlée Mix and Docello  Panna Cotta Mix.  he contestants are required to incorporate a minimum of two Maggi products in their main course and any Nestlé product can be used in their dessert.

Chair of the Judging Panel at the 2014 National Final was Justin Clarke, Food Development Chef for Maggi at Nestlé Professional. Also on the Judging Panel was a professional chef judge (Captain Shaun Collins-Lindsay, Director Army Team & Director of Combined Services Culinary Arts Team, Worthy Down),  a local authority catering professional (Jacqui Webb, LACA), a leading dietitian (Jasmine Challis, British Dietetic Association), the LACA School Chef of the Year 2013, Corinne du Preez from Ascot, Berkshire and an 11 year old boy and girl (Tom Mason and Caitlin Robinson from South Wonston Primary School, Hampshire).

Commenting on the outstanding professional standard of all of the finalists, LACA National Chair, Carrieanne Bishop said: “The culinary and creative skill of this year’s finalists was, once again, at an exceptionally high level which meant that the judges must have had a very difficult task. My congratulations to Tanya Watkin.

“Her success in taking the national title is indeed a major achievement. LACA School Chef of the Year continues to represent a highly positive way of communicating the benefits of supporting a high quality school meals service in order to help safeguard the health of the next generation.

“Parents and the wider community should be reassured that our talented front line staff in schools not only prepare tasty, highly creative dishes to tempt the taste buds of discerning children and young people but also nutritious school meals that make a major contribution towards altering eating habits, improving diets and decreasing obesity levels.

“The finalists and all of the contestants that have taken part this year should serve as a real inspiration for the food and beverage service in every school nationwide.”

Nestlé Professional, Head of Food at Nestlé Professional, Susan Gregory added her congratulations to the new LACA School Chef of the Year 2014.

She said: “Once again we have been impressed by the chefs’ ability to create healthy, nutritious and tasty meals on a limited budget. With the Universal Free School Meals Plan looming, the subject of nutrition in our children remains high on the news agenda and LACA School Chef of the Year is an important opportunity to showcase the talent and passion of the people who feed our nation’s children.”

On winning the national title of LACA School Chef of the Year 2014, Tanya Watkin said: “I was so proud to have won the national title.  With the skill amongst this year’s finalists being so high, I felt it was an achievement in itself to compete with such a talented group of people.

“All of this just goes to prove what a good job school chefs do, day in, day out, up and down the country to provide tasty, nutritious meals for millions of children”.

“I am fortunate to have a great team within my organisation, all of whom have backed me and helped me throughout the competition.

“I hope that this achievement will also serve to reassure parents everywhere about the high quality, balanced and tasty meals that are provided, not only in Woodland Middle School Academy but across the length and breadth of the country.

“My employer, Eden Foodservice for Central Bedfordshire Council, my school, my colleagues and my pupils are all absolutely thrilled and honoured by this success. I am looking forward to an exciting year as the new LACA School Chef of the Year 2014.”