Simon Hart, catering development coach and Lisa Denehy, head of catering for Busy Bees were joined by 2021 Great British Bake-Off finalist Chigs Parmar, to decide who came out on top in the final event.
The first challenge for the apprentices was to make a main course or dessert from a box of ingredients they were given. The aim being not only to cook good food, but to use every element of the ingredients box they were given to ensure there was no waste. The second and final challenge was to make a sharing dessert fit for a Valentine’s Day meal, with the finalists planning and preparing their final creations from scratch.
The judges said the final saw some the apprentices prepare and cook some ‘fantastic dishes’, with a number of impressive creations potentially worthy of mention. The top prize went to Cosmin Ruseau, who won over the judges with a traditional Romanian dish, and what the judges called ‘a sublime strawberry cheesecake’.
Cosmin is a catering apprentice at Busy Bees Leeds Headingley Centre who is currently undertaking a Level 3 Production Chef apprenticeship. He commented: “I’m very happy that I won the Busy Bees Catering Challenge. Thank you Busy Bees. If anyone is thinking of undertaking an apprenticeship, I say go for it.”
The chief operating officer at Busy Bees Education and Training, Anthony Bromirski, added: “It was great to be here today to celebrate and share the success of our apprentices in the catering challenge. The five apprentices cooked some amazing dishes and the desserts were amazing.
“But ultimately this is about the future. We have got over 100 catering vacancies across our business in terms of those who can start their journey in catering and really support what we do in giving every child the best start in life.”