Premier Foods is bringing back its McDougalls Young Baking Team of the Year competition for the fourth year running, with more prizes than ever before. New for 2018, schools will have more opportunity to win kitchen equipment as everyone shortlisted to take part in the live final, at LACA - The Main Event, will be rewarded.
Premier Foods is delighted to announce the five shortlisted schools for its McDougalls Young Baking Team of the Year competition. Reaching top scores in the preliminary judging, congratulations go to the following schools: Mendip Green Primary School, Overleigh St Mary's CE Primary School, St Martin & St Marys Church of England Primary School, Woodlands Primary School and Gurnard Primary School.
The shortlist will compete in a live final held at catering exhibition LACA (Lead Association for Catering in Education) 'The Main Event' in Birmingham on Thursday 12 July.
Sarah Robb, Channel Marketing Manager at Premier Foods, commented, 'Since the start of the year, we have been overwhelmed by the number of recipes which have rolled in and we have thoroughly enjoyed the tricky task of sifting through to identify our potential winners. We're now in the fourth year of the competition and the entries continue to get bigger and better.
' It's always exciting to see which local ingredients the schools have chosen, we've seen vegetables grown in a school garden, eggs from the local dairy farm, locally sourced honey, and one school which organised a trip to personally visit a nearby farm to select their ingredients. A huge congratulations to everyone who entered and good luck to those who've made it through to the final, we are looking forward to the competition.'
Judges include: Carol Harwood, attending on behalf of LACA; Andrew Green, Director of Operations at the Craft Guild of Chefs; and Mark Rigby, Executive Chef at Premier Foods. Together they will be putting the teams through their culinary paces, marking entries on taste, presentation and teamwork.
The McDougalls Young Baking Team of the Year competition helps school caterers to encourage teams of up to three children, between the ages of 7 and 11, to develop an interest in cooking skills by baking either one sweet or one savoury recipe, including a product from the McDougalls Flours or Flour Based Mix range.
Continuing with the successful theme of 'local produce', teams were also required to include an ingredient that had been sourced within a 30 mile radius of their school, a great way to encourage children to learn about food sourcing and provenance, and to cook with local ingredients.
The five finalists will compete for the chance to win the jackpot of £1,000 worth of kitchen equipment for their school. All runners up will also receive £250 worth of kitchen equipment in this year's new and tempting twist.