Schools must select a team of three children aged between seven and 11 to register online from today (6 January 2020).The competition will focus on local produce, encouraging teams to source ingredients within a 30-mile radius of their school.
The winning team will receive £1,000 worth of equipment for their school kitchen, whilst each of the four runners up will win £250 worth of equipment for their schools.
Mark Taylor, customer controller at Premier Foods, said: “The competition is the highlight of our calendar and proves such an important cause. It encourages schools and its pupils to brush up on their cookery skills and knowledge as well as highlighting the importance of sourcing local produce and learning where food comes from and how it is produced.
“Following the massive success of the inaugural session last year, Birmingham Mind, the local branch of the mental health charity, will also be hosting a mindfulness workshop ahead of the live cook off for all of the finalists, helping pupils to relax and boosting their confidence before the showdown.
“It’s the perfect extension of our employee-selected corporate charity partnership with Mind. Most importantly, the competition is a brilliant and fun experience for all those involved and we encourage schools to come forward to enter and take part in what is a really great day.”
The 2019 McDougalls Young Baking Team of the Year were a trio of chefs from Woodlands Primary school. Holly Charnock, school chef at Woodlands Primary School, added: “We loved being a part of the competition and we felt so lucky to have won. The dishes the other schools created were incredible.
“Our team of children had so much fun making the edible Woodlands Garden and each child was responsible for a specific area of our baked masterpiece and showed off the skills they had learnt. I really saw a difference in their confidence from the beginning of the competition until the end, both in the cooking techniques used and their personalities.
“We’ve used the winning prize money to set up a weekly cookery club and the whole school can get involved in making a weekly recipe. The cookery club has allowed us to carry on teaching our pupils where food comes from and how to put different ingredients together to create a delicious dish.”
Schools up for the baking challenge can register their interest at: www.premierfoodservice.co.uk.