Year 11 student Tom has been getting busy in the ILS kitchen working hard to devise and cook a three course meal for his GCSE Food Prep and Nutrition qualification.
The criteria for Tom’s coursework was to create a Valentine’s Day themed three course meal for two people, along with accompaniments. Tom cleverly put together his menu after researching the offerings of local pubs and restaurants for Valentine’s Day.
From his findings, Tom identified that most of the menus comprised of a fish starter, a meaty main and either chocolate or meringue for a sumptuous pud.
To start, Tom created a Crab and Sweetcorn Quiche, accompanied by a sweet chilli sauce. Tom’s pastry was melt in the mouth, and the centre was soft and silky with a lovely taste of crab. His sweet chilli sauce added a great bit of heat and sweetness.
For the main attraction, it was chicken wrapped in parma ham and stuffed with mozzarella, along with roasted vine tomatoes, green beans and vegetable couscous. Tom did a great job with the chicken, keeping it moist whilst getting a good crisp to the ham. The middle oozed of gooey mozzarella cheese. The contrasting colours looked fantastic on the plate. Tom did identify that his green beans were slightly over, but knew exactly what he would do next time to make them perfect.
To save the best until last, Tom created a heart shaped meringue with piped Chantilly cream and raspberry and blueberry compote for dessert! It was finished beautifully with a dusting of icing sugar. The meringue tasted sweet, was crunchy on the outside, but soft and chewy in the middle. There was a good dollop of cream and the compote was the perfect balance of sweet and tarte.
Tom really put a lot of thought in to how his plate looks, for example choosing a dark plate to contrast against the light coloured meringue and cream for dessert. He did an amazing job meticulously preparing his food, and following instructions.
Tom invited Mrs Madden, Strategic Lead for Student Progress, Taylor, Gap Year student on placement and Peggie’s Houseparent, Alan, to come and taste his creations. They were all incredibly impressed and only wished there was more to go around! There were lots of ‘yums’ and positive comments around the room.
Mrs Madden congratulated: “Tom produced an amazing three course meal – not only did it look beautiful, but it all tasted absolutely delicious. I really felt like I was experiencing a MasterChef creation – it was that good! Tom deserves to feel very proud of himself.”
Ms Emanuel, Head of ILS, said: “I was so impressed with the skills, presentation and work ethic that Tom showed. He was calm throughout and directed his commis chef very well. I am so proud of you!”
