Young chefs battle for place in regional final (From Harrow Times)
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Kingsbury High School chefs take part in RIBI Young Chef Competition
2:00pm Friday 11th January 2013 in News By Emma Innes
Photo by Steve Foster: Lucille Parker, Sara Zaidi, Sandy Myrants, Olivia Taiwo and Helen Antoniou
A group of budding young chefs have competed in the school heat of a nationwide cooking competition.
Pupils at Kingsbury High School, in Bacon Lane, competed against each other in the heat of the annual Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) Young Chef Competition.
The 13 competitors were made up of three Year 10 students, two Year 8s and eight Year 7s.
The chefs were asked to create a main dish for two from ingredients costing less than £6.
The concoctions were then judged by members of the Rotary Club of Northwick Park – Sandy Myrants, president, Lucille Parker, honorary secretary, and Helen Antoniou.
The winner was 14-year-old Olivia Taiwo, from Kingsbury.
She cooked sea bass en croute with puy lentils, roasted tomatoes and parched asparagus.
Olivia said “I have been baking with my mum since I was four and I started cooking on my own from the age of nine.
“I entered the RIBI competition because I thought it would be good experience to compare my skills with other students and to see if I might be good enough to take cooking up professionally one day.
“I am very happy and surprised at the same time to have won. I am very nervous, but excited about the next heat because I get to make a dessert – my favourite part of cooking!”
Sandy Myrants, Rotary Club of Northwick Park president, said: “Olivia gained good marks all the way through.
“She made her own rough puff pastry, she filleted her own fish, she worked efficiently with a good awareness of hygiene and presentation.
“Finally her dish was beautifully cooked, tasty and had complementary textures of flaky pastry, tasty, delicately flavoured fish filling together with the added bite given by the puy lentils and the perfectly cooked al dente asparagus.”
Olivia, and runner-up 15 year-old Sara Zaidi, who also lives in Kingsbury, will go on to compete in the North West London area semi-finals at the College of North West London on January 30.
