BTEc hospitlaity visits Bread/Pastry Elements
Today the Y12 BTEC Hospitality students were lucky to go on a visit to Bread and Pastry Elements factory in Chi Wan and meet the Chef owner, Gregorie. The company was set up 5 years ago and now supplies a vast number of Hong Kong’s top hotels and restaurants with their pastry product. The amazingly through 10 tons of flour and 3 tons of butter every month to make their various products. Gregorie took us on a tour of the different parts of the bakery and got yo see burger buns being made for Beef and Liberty, pizza dough being made for pizza express and they even got to sample the croissants. It was great to see how the production is managed and the hear about the logistical problems of delivering in Hk, as well as hearing about what it was like to start the bakery business. many thanks to Gregorie and the team and if you get the chance, visit their new shop called Bakehouse in Wan Chai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe6AKh_tLys
ESF Chef Final
Last Friday saw the annual finale of the ESF Chef competition, where all the winners from all the ESF schools come together to compete for the title. This year the competitors were given the brief to “Plan, prepare and make a technically challenging, 2 course meal (main course & dessert) that reflects the theme “sustain” and would be suitable to serve at a new, International style HK restaurant that wishes to showcase locally sourced ingredients.”
Representing Island school in the juniors, were Andrea and Yu, who worked together to make their two course meal of free range chicken with homemade pesto and tomatoes and Chocolate fondant with mint chocolate ice cream.
The students collaborated really well together , but were beaten by two boys from West island.
Jennifer represented Island school in the Seniors, after winning every round of the island school heats. She decided to make her take on a Vegan Edible Garden and Chocolate and cherry dessert, served ina white chocolate dome coloured blue and green to represent the earth. Both dishes showed fantastic creativity and presentation and was a rerally interesting interpretation of the brief
I was a really close competition and the judges deliberated for a long time, but the Senior winner was Summ,er from Discovery College, who made a belly pork dish and poached pear with chilli chocolate sauce
many thanks to Magic Season Organics that donated a lot of the vegetables that students used. This is a an organic vegetable box delivery company recently set up in Hong Kong by ex-Island school students. You can find out more about their company here https://magicseasonorganics.com/pages/our-story
Alos a big thank you to Island School PTA and Masterful Ltd, who arranged the prizes.
Y13 BTEC Pop Up Restaurant – Niam
On Tuesday 24th April the Y13 BTEC Hospitality students opened their pop up restaurant for one night only, which they called Niam! This was for their final unit where they have to plan, organised and run a catered vent. they decided to open an East meets West fusion restaurant to celebrate Island School moving to Sha Tin Wai. All the menu incorporated European syles with local Asian ingredients. There was a total of 63 paying guest at the evening and the feedback from them was superb. The Y12 Hospitality student were the waiting staff for the event, which they counts towards their customer service unit. all the students should be extreme;y proud of themselves for pulling off such a high quality fine dining event. Many thanks to everyone who came and supported the event, it was great to have so many people there.
Y12 students finish running the Y7 Healthy Cooking Club
many thanks to Chloe, Viva, Jennifer and Richard, who have been running a healthy cooking club after school on Mondays for year 7 students. They started by watch Mr Lord demonstrate to the students and then they helped the y7’s but the soon took over from doing the demonstrations. they all said they loved doing this as part of their CAS and has been a great confidence boost, working with and demonstrating to the younger children and Chloe even said i has made her consider teaching as a career now.
ESF Island School Final Senior Winner – Jennifer Frawley
In Friday 20th April, the three senior finalist competed in the Island School final. The had the brief of Modernized street food, which gave them a wide scope to be creative and take inspiration from different cuisines. The students had two hour to produce a main course and dessert and they were being judged on the creativity, skills, presentation and taste of the dishes.
In Third place was Natalie Wong (12F), who made a Mexican inspired menu of a deconstructed pork taco and carnal flan.
Second was Natasha Wang (12W), who made a Won ton and Noodle Main course and the then a Fortune cookie croque en bouch with creamy mousse,
This year winner was Jennifer Frawley (12F), who made Fish made with a batter flavoured with hot cheetos, chips and curry sauce and then a Filipino dessert of a fruit filled spring roll with Banana ice cream. She will now be representing the school at the vESF final on 25th May at South Island School.
Many thanks to the judges, Mrv Loggie, Mr Roper, Mr Pawlyn, Ms Law and Ethan Li and to the PTA, who donated the prizes of a selection of kitchen utensils
IS ESF CHEF Semi final Senior Winner – Jennifer Frawley
In this Semi final of the Island School Senior section of the ESF Chef competition,the the competitors were give the brief to use a fruit in three different ways to create a dessert. The standard o skills and level of creativity was probably the best ever at this stage of the competition., with some students even putting their food science knowledge to the test with molecular gastronomy techniques. The Judges (Mr Reed, Ms Chan, Ms Law and Mrs Craig, visiting from West Island),were blown away with the presentation and then found it really hard to decide on the winner and who was going through to the IS final. In the end it was three way tie for Second place, with
Natalie Wong who made Strawberry cheesecake, strawberry sponge and strawberry spheres.
Natasha Wang, for her mango zero gravity creation
and Natalie Leung with her deconstructed Mango Passion fruit cheesecake
Jennifer was a clear winner though , with her Raspberry cheesecake, with Raspberry Coulis and Sorbet\
Island School ESF Cshef competition 1st round (Senior) – Winner Jennifer Frawley (12F)
The ESF chef competition got of to a great start at Island school at Island school on Friday, with 2 competitors from all six houses being put through their culinary paces with a creative challenge. Students took in in turns to pick from either cooking chicken or salmon or hallouni, then had a range of carbohydrates and vegetables to pick from. They then had one hour to create a dish to present to the judges. The standard was extremely high and with only 6 places in second round, so was the tension. After much deliberating the scores were in and Jenifer Frawley wasbnamed the winner with her sweet and sour creation.
The final placings of students going through to the next round were’
Y12 BTEC Hospitality Staff Lunch
Well done to all the Y12 BTEC Hospitality students, who designed and made their own meals in groups today, to serve to staff at lunch. There was a really varied and interesting menu, which gave staff a difficult choice for which team to eat from. Staff then paid a contribution of what they felt it was worth and filled in feedback questionnaires, to help the students evaluate the success of the service.
Red Team:
Stir fry Seafood Vietnamese Noodles with Vegetable Spring Roll
Yellow Team:
Korean Spicy Beef and Broccoli Served with Brown Rice
Quinoa bean Burger with a side of sweet potato fries and garlic coleslaw
THE BLUE TEAM
Thai Chicken Satay, with steamed vegetables, and Coconut Rice.
(peanut sauce on the side)
The feedback was fantastic and students enjoyed the event so much they wanted to do it more regularly and staff would be very happy with this.
Y13 BTEC Hospitality students cook the school lunches
Well done to all the Y13 BTEC Hospitality students, who today prepared,m cooked and served their own meals to serve to students and staff in the main at lunch. They have working in small teams for the last few weeks, to plan their meals and make sure it met all nutritional guidelines and fit in with the budgeting constraints of a school meal, as well ensuring it could all be cooking in time. All meals were sold for $25 and they served over 150 people in 30 mins, which is a great achievements. Here is the menu that students and staff had to choose from.
Shredded Roasted Jerk Chicken with Rice and beans and stir fried vegetables
or
Filipino Seafood or Vegetable Noodle Stir fry with fresh spring roll
or
Beef and Vegetable Quesadilla with Coleslaw
The feedback was all extremely positive and the student worked extremely hard to ensure the quality was the best it could be and that everyone world be happy with the food they were served. Thanks to all the students involved and to everyone that came and supported the event
BTEC trip to Oolaa,
the year 12 BTEC students had the pleasure of breakfast at Oolaa’s, in Central. Not only did they get to enjoy the food, but they also got to interview Malcolm, who is one of the owners of the entire Castello concepts group. I gained a great insights into the inner workings of running a restaurant business in Hong Kong. Thank you very much to Malcolm on the staff at Oolaa, for being so accommodating and helping the students with the hospitality/business units
