News

Nene Valley Primary School was crowned the first McDougalls Young Baking Team of the Year at the LACA Main Event on Thursday.

The Peterborough team, made up of three Nene Valley school children and supported by school caterer Sarah Kirk, baked Butterfly Garden Party Cupcakes.

Joel Coulson (aged 10), Brook Sawyer (10) and Anna Zubrek (9) beat off tough competition from schools across the country at the live final held at the Hilton Metropole, Birmingham.

Sarah Gray, foodservice channel marketing manager at Premier Foods, said: “With this being the inaugural year of our McDougalls Young Baking Team competition, we were unsure what to expect but have been blown away by the dedication and enthusiasm from all competing schools; from those who entered paper-entries, to our five worthy finalists on the day.

“We would like to thank everyone who contributed to making the competition such an unbelievable success and we cannot wait to launch next year’s event.”

The judges - Geoff Acott, representing Craft Guild of Chefs; Carol Harwood, representing LACA; and Mark Rigby, Executive Chef and Head of Foodservice Innovation at Premier Foods - had the nearly impossible task of choosing an overall winner from the finalists, but the title was awarded to Nene Valley Primary School, who achieved high scores for teamwork, presentation, taste, aroma, and texture.

Mark Rigby, said: “We were all extremely impressed with the level of effort each team had gone to in their preparation for the live final.

“It was an incredibly tough decision, but ultimately Nene Valley Primary School stood out to us because of the way they worked together as a team, with all three children participating fully with only basic support from their caterer. Also, their cakes were simply delicious!”

Teams can already register their interest for the 2016 competition at http://www.premierfoodservice.co.uk