This year’s Master Chef competition at Island school started in January with the first round of Junior and Senior students competing for their House. Junior contestants worked in pairs while seniors worked independently, with each contestant making a dish that they felt would be suitable to be sold in a coffee shop. The top 5 from each category then went through to the semi-finals.

The semi-finals in March saw the juniors creating vegetarian meals (to reduce meat intake). The seniors were asked to design a dish to promote the use of herbs being grown in the school garden.

The judges were made up from a range of teachers and students but they all agreed that the semi-final winners were Jenny Wang and Valerie Lee (Rutherford) in the junior section and Ayesha Shahani (Wilberforce) in the senior section.

The final took place at the Cultural Spring Fair 15^th April 2016 and the top three juniors and seniors were tasked to make two different fusion tapas dishes in an hour and a half.

The judges were; Edgar Sanuy, Head Chef from Maximal Concepts,
Mr and Mrs Binge,
Natalie Chan (ex-student studying culinary arts)
Kaela-Mei Townson, who was last year’s winner.

Head of Food and Textiles Technology Chris Binge said; “The standard was very high and the judging was close but there was a unanimous decision on who should win;
Juniors, Yash  Anand and Alessandro Lucchani (Wilberforce) with Homemade Curry Ravioli and Aztec Brownies with Mango Shrikhand.
Senior, Claudia Lau (Rutherford) with Tuna Tartare with Red Quinoa and Indian Spiced Churro with Cardamon Syrup.

These three students will now compete in the ESF final on 27th May  held Sha Tin College.

Mr Lord; “Many thanks to Maximal Concepts for sponsoring and donating the restaurant voucher prizes for brunch at Fish and Meat, Mercedes Me and Blue Butcher. Also thanks to the PTA and Masterful Ltd for the amazing hampers that they put together as prizes.”