NEWS ARCHIVE
Professional Chef Judges Students' Work
Food students from Duchy College Stoke Climsland have had the opportunity to gain advice and feedback from Rick Stein's Executive Pastry Chef, Stuart Pate.
As part of the Foundation Degree in Food Studies the students are required to carry out a project as part of their Personal and Employability Skills Development module. The students designed the contents of their project from the outset, choosing to run a competition. The competition involved making the renowned French pastry ‘Croquembouche'.
The students organised the whole event including sourcing the ingredients, and booking judges for the event.
Ingredients were donated to the students by Proper Cornish, Trewithen Dairy and Macphie to help them create their masterpieces. Judges consisted of Curriculum Area Manager for Food Studies at Duchy College, Liz Whitley, Programme Manager, Laura Black, Marketing Executive, Sarah Hernandez and Rick Stein's Executive Pastry Chef, Stuart Pate.
The students were divided into three teams and had seven hours to produce a Croquembouche masterpiece of their choice. The judges gave feedback on all aspects of the product, commenting on the filling, appearance, texture, taste and overall design.
The winning team consisted of Sean Kenny and Jessika Inkster with their Chocolate and Orange Croquembouche with a caramel and almond topping, accompanied by homemade almond brittle. Jessika said: "I thoroughly enjoyed creating the croquembouche and it was a privilege to have feedback by a professional chef. I feel I learnt a lot from the day especially the importance of teamwork. It was a delight tasting everyone's end product."
Curriculum Area Manager, Liz Whitley said: "The students did a fantastic job of organising and executing this project. I want to say a big thank you to Stuart for coming in to judge the competition and congratulations goes to the winners with their chocolate and orange masterpiece. I also want to say a big thank you to Proper Cornish, Trewithen Dairy, Machpie. It is fantastic for the students to gain feedback from a pastry expert. They learnt a lot from the experience."
All undergraduate courses at Duchy College are awarded by the Plymouth University.
For more information about the Food courses at Duchy College visit www.duchy.ac.uk or call 0845 605 4055.
