Two 12-year-old Birmingham students, Siobhan Hussain and Innesse Benmoulai, have won a national competition to design a creative school menu.
Their menu – called The French / English Twist – took the top prize of £1,000 for their school, Hodge Hill Sports and Enterprise College, in the Grand Designers challenge organised by education catering company Aspens Services.
The competition challenged students across the country to develop a menu with the winning entry for each school then served to students at lunchtime. As well as coming up with dishes that students would like, competition entrants had to give their menu a name, research students’ preferences, devise branding ideas and cost the recipes.
The successful entries from each school were then judged by the Aspens executive chef Ken Tee with Siobhan and Innesse’s French-English design chosen as the overall national winner.
Taking inspiration from French and English cuisine, their menu featured sautéed chicken served with a tomato-rich provencal sauce and rice; a vegetarian dish of French bread pizza with salad and a pudding of French apple tart.
As part of their entry, Siobhan and Innesse also carried out a survey, quizzing students about their favourite foods and how much they spend on lunch. They provided costings, researched traditional French and English dishes and studied the approach to food in both countries. The students devised their competition-winning entry with help from Hodge Hill teacher Claire Jepson.
“We were highly impressed with the fantastic amount of detail which Siobhan and Innesse packed into their menu entry,” said Aspens managing director John Roe.
“They had done extensive research with students at their school and came up with some really creative and healthy ways of serving food that appeals to students, such as their variation on pizza using French bread and tasty vegetables. We liked the creative combination of French and English dishes, the colourful branding, menu design and their selection of healthy, delicious-sounding foods which we thought would work well on a school menu.”
The students’ success has scooped a grand prize of £1,000 for Hodge Hill Sports and Enterprise College to spend as it chooses.