BTEC East meets West fine dining meal
see the video.
Many thanks to Mae Sapo for editing and the Y12 BTEC film students for getting all the footage
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.
Lord’s Kitchen Burger Sale – Chefs of the Week (Ruaidhri and James)
Well done to Ruaidhri and James from the Lord’s Kitchen Elements class who planned and organuised their own pop up burger sale today. The had previously costed the ingredients, worked out their break even point and done the marketing to promote the sale. They sold all 40 burgers for $30 each, within 10mins and easily could have sold more. Very good considering they needed to sell 30 to break even. Looking forward to their next pop up venture on Monday 11th June to kick off Healthy Eating Week
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.
IS Junior Chef Finals
IS Junior chef competition took place at the STW campus on Friday. The competitors were all in high spirits and put on a very good fight for the coveted title. It was wonderful to watch each team create their own variations of regular street food. But in the end Da Vinci’s Andrea Cheung and Yu Kisa won the judges votes with their tasty b’an mi and cake pops.
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
Homemade Pasta – Chefs of the week (Erika and Christy)
Homemade3 pasta week is one of the most challanging and tiring lessons in the Lord’s kitchen Elements. Students could make any sauce to accompaqny their pasta and then are givingf a real work out doinbg the rolling with the pasta machine and some students even made filled raviolis. However Erika dn Christy were awarded Chef of the week for their perfectly presented spinach and mushroom tagliatelle, as they worked the most effectively as team to make it.
IS Junior Chef Semi finals
ESF Junior chef semi finals were held last Friday, 9th March. The challenge was to create a classic dessert with a twist. The six competing teams came up with some impressive ideas that impressed the judges. After serious deliberation, Megan and Gemma came in first place for their deconstructed chocolate and marshmallow brownies with home made ice cream. Andrea and Yu got second place while Audrey and Jillian came third. The three teams will now go through to the next round to be held at STW campus on 20th April.
I want to thank the judges who gave up their time to come and support this competition.
