IB Food students CNY meal
Today the tables were turned on Mr Lord as he was given a lesson in traditional Chinese New year Food, culture and etiquette. The reasons for serving each dish were discussed, as well as some fun poking at Mr Lord’s chopstick ability. I love the turnip cake the best with the steamed fish!
Lord’s Kitchen HE Fair Buffet
The Lord’s Kitchen course culminated in them putting their skills and knowledge together to plan and prepare a finger food buffet for the visitors from all the Universities that were at Island school for the Higher Education Fair,
The was a vast selection on offer, including Mini Salmon Wellingtons, Vegetable Samosas, Chilli Beef Burritos, Falafel Wraps and Chocolate Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce. The students collaborated excellently all day and were very professional in the service, getting a lot of praise from all the visitors. Well done to all of themand I hope see them on the food courses in the future.
Hitesh Hemnani wins local cooking competition!
Congratulations to Hitesh who drew confidence from his 2nd place in Island School Senior Masterchef competition last year and entered a local cooking compition with a friend from another school. The completion was part of a talent show organised to promote the fight against crime in Hong Kong and they entered the non-ethnic Chienese category of the competition.
Hitesh says “My friend and I were invited by the district councilor of Yau Tsim Mong district, to join this cooking competition which was organized by the Mong Kok police station with a friend of mine (Dhiresh Buxani). With the theme of crime, we named our dishes accordingly. We first made paneer tikka skewers as our appetizer. Flowing on we made farfalle pasta in tomato sauce to show the color of blood and to finish it off we made a light and refreshing watermelon mojito to balance the strong flavors and the heat from the entree and appetizer. Our main area of focus was presentation and taste. We were fortunate enough to win with the position of champion”
I am sure we have a future star chef in the making here.
Spirit Fund Gourmet Lunch
To celebrate the first six months of the Spirit Fund, Head of Food Technology and Hospitality, Mr. Chris Lord and the BTEC students hosted a three course luxury dining experience. There guests, school council members, senior staff from the ESF and alumni.
The students spent time working on the menu themselves based on skills they have developed throughout their BTEC Hospitality course this year and working in small brigades in the kitchen. They were assisted by professional chef in the making Nitin Hiranandani who is studying at Wales and Johnson University in Rhode Island and Trainee hotel manager at Les Roches University Alvin Koo, both Island School alumni.
Robert Gibson Chairman of the School Council said. “The food was exceptional and students showed some amazing skill.”
Following their lunch time serving students then cooked for teachers after school in a second seating totaling more than 100 covers in the day.
One of teh BTEC students said: “Tuesday was the first time I have spent the whole day cooking. It was fun, we were on our feet all day and there was pressure to get it right but Nitin ran the operation like a professional kitchen shouting times and food order so all the food was perfect and hot. It was a really good experience.”
The menu was
Starter
Broccoli Soup with garlic and cheese crouton
Seared Scallops with Peas and Bacon
Beetroot and Feta Salad
Main
Confit duck leg with flageolet ragoût and celeriac mash
Pan fried salmon with sauce vierge and puffed quinoa
Butternut Squash Risotto with parmesan crisp
Dessert
Earl Grey Panna cotta with shortbread biscuit
Chocolate Orange Profiteroles
Churros with Peach Coulis
The Chefs were
Aurora Fenwick, Cade Weathington,, Phoebe Gilbert,,Victor Martin, Finn Luke, Jacqueline Kim, Sophia Henderson Hall, Sorbie Ku, George Taffs, Justin Dael, Tristan Hannafor, with Claudia Lau (IB student )running the desserts with Raena Lau and Darcy Horne
The Waitresses all volunteered from Mr Lord’s Y10 GCSE class and were very professional, so a big thanks yo them, Natalie Leung, Natasha Wang, Momoka Sugaya, Chiara Dadamo, Jennifer Frawley Alyssa Harries, Chloe Chau, Adeline Tam and Brita Cheng.
Already looking forward to next years!
Lords Kitcehn – Y13 Graduation Canapes
Well done to this class who were amazing on 1st June. They all designed and made 100 capes each, making sure we had 200 to serve the 500 guests at the Y13 graduation.
The feedback from the guest was amazing. Possibly the best range of canapes that has come from one of Mr Lord’s classes
ESF Chef of the year – Junior Winners
Alessandro and Yash Year 8 triumphed in the junior section of ESF Chefs’ Competition against all the other ESF secondary schools on Friday 27th May 2016.
Working in a pair, their brief was to make street food classics into fine dining dishes – with 2 hours to make and present a main course and dessert.
Alessandro took charge of the main course, making Arancini Alla Siciliana, risotto balls stuffed with ham and cheese, served with a traditional tomato sauce. He said: “I chose this [dish] because it is traditional Italian street food which I think I can make restaurant level by adding a few small touches and plating it cleanly.
Yash made the dessert, Mango Kulfi with Cardamom Biscuit and Falooda, drawing on his Indian heritage. He said: “I chose to make this dessert because it brings together very traditional dishes and flavours. I am really pleased I can represent my school by making this amazing dish.”
The panel of chef judges all loved their modernised food from their own cultures and were really impressed with the presentation and balance of flavours and textures.
Claudia Lau Year 12 represented Island School in the senior section. She impressed the judges with her dishes of: Potato Galette with Ham, Poached Eggs and Truffle Oil and her dessert of Pandan Pancakes with Peanut-butter.
As well as bringing the trophy back to Island School, they also won a hamper of utensils donated by Masterful Ltd, restaurant vouchers donated by Maximal Concepts and a chef’s jacket donated by Chefworks.
Head of Hospitality and Food Technology Mr Lord said: “Many thanks to all the judges and sponsors and a big congratulations to all the competitors – well done to the boys, who put a lot of time and effort into practicing.”
IS Masterchef Semi-Finals
Last Friday saw the exciting semi finals of Masterchef at Island School, with the Juniors being challenged to make a Meat-free dish to encourage people to eat less meat and the Seniors a dish to showcase herbs from the school garden, both in 45min time-frame. The judging was as always tough and panel of teachers and students finally came up y\with their winners in each section
In Seniors Ayesha Shahani won with her Tart filled with mint and lavender chocolate Ganache
In Juniors Jenny Wang and Valerie Lee won with their Mushroom Tagliatelle
Also Going Through from Senoirs is Claudia in 2nd place with her Thai Beef Salad
and Hitesh with he Pesto Pasta in a Parmesan Basket
From Juniors in 2nd place, by only 1 pint were Alessandro Lucchini and Yash Anand with their Aubergine parmigiana and Jason Qiu & Jordyn Dubinsky with their Macaroni Cheese pie
Well done to all the other competitors who didn’t quite make it through, the standard as once again really high
IS Masterchef – Juniors Round 1
Well done to Jenny Wang and Valerie Lee from Rutherford who were the first rounf winners of this years Masterchef. they were challenged to make a coffee shop prtoduct in 45mins and managed ro make a red velvet cake and ice-cream.
Well done to all the students involved as it was a very close competition. Also making it through to the next round is:
2nd Place – Pippa Yu and Audrey Lai (R)
3rd – Marie Brendal & Janice Chin. (F)
J4th – Alessandro Lucchini and Yash Anand (W)/Janice Fok & Rachel Zhou (N)
6th – Jason Qiu & Jordyn Dubinsky (D
BTEC catering for staff CPD
Well done to all the Y12 BTEC Hospitality students who took part in the evnt catering for the staff and lunches this week. They worked in 4 teams to make the food and each team prepared and cooked a different style of food to serve around 150 people.
Red Team – Indian
Fish Tikka, Onion Bhaji Basmati Rice and Riata
Blue Team – Mexico
Chili Con Carne Taco’s, Cheese Quesadillas,
Corn on the Cob and Salsa
Yellow Team – Caribbean
Lime and Chili Chicken, Sweet Potato Chips and Pineapple Salsa
Green Team – Mediterranean in Salad Bar
Seafood Pasta Salad
Pesto Penne
Greek Salad
Honey Lemon Dressed Salad Leaves
The feedback was excellent from all the people that tried it and it was great to see how much the pupils enjoyed cooking and serving and how they found it rewarding getting the positive feedback, which is great as they gave up their day off. The students will all now be rewarded with a posh meal out as part of the research for the next event
ESF Masterchef Final
Well done to the Island school students who competed at the ESF Masteerchef Final At Sha Tin College and each came third in their respective categories withe the challenging brief of Veg is Edgey, fruit is funk – a main course and desert for a vegetarian in 1 our 45mins. Kaela Mei Townson in the Seniors made raw, vegan zucchini lasagna with basil pesto and macadamia cheese followed by a raw/vegan chocolate and avocado mousse
. 
Chiara Dadamo and Avantika Malhotra working together in the Juniors made Pineapple curry with rice and Avocado chocolate mousse with sweet potato truffles
It was a very tight competition and the judges (ESF Exectutive Officer Belinda Gree, Operation Manager from the HK Culinary Academy, Tony Magnetic the marketing manager for Maximal Concepts and Gregoire Michaud the chef proprietor of Bread Elements) found it very difficult to decide on the overall winners and their was only a point between 1st and 3rd in the senior competition. But well done to The students from Sha Tin College, who for the second year running won both sections.
You can see from the photos below all the food looked delicious
More photos taken by the professionals her
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B2uKFGTU0iyHfnQ2NkF3VldQNjBnSUJGLTVQUmZHSUc1LVNYaDhjWUFGV0xyRVdMTm4taEU
Many thanks to the sponsors Maximal Concepts who donated meal vouchers for Fish and Meat, Blue Butcher and Brickhouse, Chefworks who donated bespoke embroiled aprons and chef jackets and the Island School PTA who made up the kitchen utensil hampers
