Pancakes away: Ready Steady Cook comes to Canford
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| Food for thought... |
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The hotly contested first round of Canford’s annual Ready Steady Cook
challenge took place recently. Now in its seventh year, the contest
provides an ideal opportunity for pupils to experiment with cooking and
give them an insight into preparation and presentation of fresh
ingredients. This year’s contest, held on Shrove Tuesday, featured a
live ‘cook out’ enabling the pupils to test their culinary skills under
pressure.
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| Mini pancakes |
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| The pancake station |
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| The judges take a taste.. |
On a strict budget, the nine teams representing each house had to produce a starter or a main course and a pudding, one of which had to include pancakes cooked live. Each team had to conduct research and undertake preparation without any outside help. Every dish was made from scratch and couldn't use ready prepared items. The standards were fantastic and the contestants worked against the clock to produce their pancakes. There were all variations of pancakes, both savoury and sweet, as each house vied to capture the judges’ votes. After much deliberation and licking of forks, Marriotts for the girls and School House for the boys were judged the overall winners.
Cooking has been a popular activity at Canford for a number
of years and aims to give pupils a basic practical knowledge of
cooking; skills which they can build on later in life. The two teams go
forward to the final where they will be required to produce a three
course meal of their own devising using particular ingredients and to a
pre-set budget. They will serve the meal to a panel of eight judges
and be marked not only on their dishes but on their presentation and
waiting skills.
