TWO pupils from the Manor Primary School took first place at Melksham Oak’s annual Superchef competition earlier this month.
Melksham Oak sixth-former Ollie Gentle reports, ‘On 15th July 2016 Melksham Oak held the annual Superchef competition, a cooking competition this year containing entries by year 6 students from The Manor Primary School, St George’s Primary School and Bowerhill Primary School.
‘The event involved the children getting into small groups and cooking a two course meal, sounds simple right? Well, the challenges were; contestants had only a £6 budget, a time limit, the meals needed to be healthy and there was a panel of high-profile judges that they needed to impress!
‘This year’s judges consisted of Melksham Oak headteacher Stephen Clark, author Charlotte Popescu, Asda community colleague Sue McKenna and Mayor of Melksham, Terri Welch.
‘Author Charlotte Popescu was grateful for the invitation to judge the competition and was impressed by the enthusiasm of the youngsters.
‘Popsecu said, “It was an honour and a delight to be one of the judges for the Superchef competition. The children obviously worked hard to produce their food in an hour and they were so enthusiastic. It was a great insight to see that schools are organising events like this which help children to think about healthy food and get involved with actually producing it.”
‘It was agreed by the judges that every student who took part did both themselves and their schools proud; and everyone showed promise within the competition.
‘After much deliberation, Ollie Holloway and Alex Matthews from The Manor snatched first prize, closely followed by St George’s Amber Wilcox and Florence Gwyn who took second place. In third position came Mia Perry, Tom Dowell and Evan Milburn, also from St George’s Primary school.
‘The event was another unprecedented success, well organised once again by Stacey Mulhall, a design and technology teacher at Melksham Oak.
‘All in all the event was very active, fulfilling and inspiring, proving a super day for the many superchefs involved!’