Sarah Robb, channel marketing manager, at Premier Foods said: “We have been overwhelmed by the quality and number of entries we received. The entries were all of a high calibre and it was incredibly difficult for the judges to pick just five teams to go through to the final.
“We received a variety of exciting and mouth-watering recipes, from alluring pizza snakes to tantalising garden carrot pots. Congratulations must go to all schools, but especially the five shortlisted teams who will be taking part in the live final in July.”
The five finalists are: Bolsover C of E School, Derby; Lymm High School, Cheshire, Phoenix Community School, Kent; Spaldwick Community Primary School, Huntingdon and Trinity and St. Michaels, Leyland.
The judging panel includes Carol Harwood representing LACA; Andrew Green, director of operations at the Craft Guild of Chefs, and Mark Rigby, executive chef at Premier Foods.
The mission was for school caterers to recruit an enthusiastic team of up to three children between the ages of 7 and 11, to take part in the competition.
The children were then tasked with creating one sweet and one savoury recipe using McDougalls Flour or a product from its Flour Based Mix Range, which included a locally sourced ingredient, produced from a maximum of thirty miles away from their school, meeting this years ‘Provenance’ theme.
The top prize is £1,000 and the finalists will compete at 1pm in the Arden Suite at the LACA Main Event on July 7th. The dishes will be judged at 2.30pm with the winners announced at 3.15pm by Peter McGrath, chair of LACA.