Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall had tea this week in The Dorchester Hotel with the winning pupils of British Food Fortnight’s school competition: the ‘Cook for Life’ Challenge that is sponsored by Kenwood. The competition challenges all schools in the UK to take part in the annual food celebration by incorporating cookery into their curriculum activities in imaginative ways. Last year’s special challenge was for pupils to design and cook a menu using the minimum food miles. The winning school, Hawarden High School in Flintshire, produced a menu that cut food miles by 95%!

As a reward, on 10th February, 15 pupils aged between 14 and 18 spent the afternoon in the kitchens of the Dorchester Hotel with Executive Chef, Henry Brosi, learning about the quality and variety of British food and how to incorporate healthy cooking into their everyday lives.

HRH The Duchess of Cornwall joined the pupils in the kitchens to see them put the finishing touches to the dishes they were learning to make. She was accompanied by the CEO of Kenwood, sponsors of the competition, who presented Hawarden School with their winning prize: cooking equipment to enable them to give more cookery lessons in class.

Her Royal Highness then enjoyed a spectacular Dorchester tea with the pupils and other leading participants in British Food Fortnight including representatives from Aramark (one of the largest food service organisations), Budgens, National Trust, Women’s Institute, Hoddesdon Girl Guides, Anchor Trust care homes, Bolton Council and some of the chefs who regularly go into schools during the Fortnight to teach children how to cook. Her Royal Highness also met the BBC’s ‘Hairy Biker’ celebrity chefs, Dave Myers & Simon King, who are big supporters of British Food Fortnight.

Reg Barritt, teacher from the winning Hawarden High School, says: “Taking part in British Food Fortnight has been hugely rewarding for our school and the opportunity for pupils to meet a member of the Royal family and be given a cooking lesson in a top London hotel is the icing on the cake!”

Notes to Editors

1. Running from 19th September to 4th October 2009 and now in its eighth year, British Food Fortnight is an established date on the school calendar. Hundreds of schools use the event as an opportunity to teach young people about food: about the diverse and delicious range of food available, the benefits of healthy eating and about the pleasures of eating quality, fresh, seasonal and regionally distinct produce. The event provides schools with everything they need to teach children about food and cookery:
   
   
   • It’s network of 9,000 chefs is at the ready to give every school its own ‘Jamie Oliver’ and help teach children how to cook.
   
   
   • British Food Fortnight's 'Cook for Life' Challenge, sponsored by Kenwood, gives schools the opportunity to win Kenwood cooking equipment. 200 schools are being kitted out with full class sets of equipment as a result of the event. Prizes are awarded to the top six schools in each region that incorporate cookery in their curriculum activities in the most imaginative and innovative way. Prizes include Multi-pro food processors, Kenwood Prosperos, handheld electric mixers, tea-towels and aprons.
   
   
   • The event’s online ‘Teacher Zone’ has been acclaimed by the Times Educational Supplement as a “wonderful resource” and features the event’s ‘Putting the Ooo back into food’ resources that provide teachers with all the information they need to include food and cookery activities within their curriculum teaching


2. Additional Notes on Hawarden High School’s Winning Entry
   

   Hawarden High School in Flintshire is the winner of British Food Fortnight's 'Cook for Life' Challenge 2008, sponsored by Kenwood, in which schools were challenged to design and cook a meal using the minimum number of food miles.

   Years 10 and 11 of Hawarden High School in Flintshire designed and cooked a meal that cut food miles by 95%. They commenced the Challenge by making a selection of traditional British dishes using ingredients that had either been donated by the school community or that they had picked in the school grounds. From these, they decided their menu: Indian-style Pigeon & Lamb Kebabs served with an authentic, home-made flatbread and a drizzle of seasonal relish; Delicious Baked Codling served on a golden brown potato rosti, finished with a seasonal salad garnish; Succulent Buffalo Pie, made with the finest North Wales Buffalo, slow roasted in a moist bitter ale and topped with the flakiest pastry, served with winter roasted vegetables; and Apple Up-side-down Cake served with lashings of homemade honey ice-cream and a gorgeous blackberry coulis.

   Initially the pupils calculated the number of food miles for this meal to be over 37,000! With a little careful substitution and modification of ingredients they managed to cut the miles by 95%! For example, they replaced vanilla with local honey in their ice cream, used local gooseberries in place of an orange in the main course, and exchanged cane sugar for home produced beet sugar. [Contin] Pupils even made their own Welsh Acorn Coffee, using acorns that they had collected, with which to finish off the meal! As an experiment, this coffee was also used to make a coffee cake.