Lanarkshire Larder Schools Recipe Challenge
Lanarkshire Larder Schools Recipe Challenge
Lanarkshire Larder Recipe Challenge - Academic Year 2022 / 2023
Lanarkshire Larder received funding from the Regional Food Fund in 2022 to create a recipe campaign which promotes our members' food and drink and local produce. The website is populated with great recipes, all of which can be downloaded.
As part of the campaign we also created the #LanarkshireLarderRecipeChallenge. We challenged secondary schools across both North and South Lanarkshire to create a recipe using at least 1 ingredient from a range of our members produce. Our aim is to support and grow the local food & drink industry and so we were on the hunt for new, innovative ideas to showcase our wonderful businesses in Lanarkshire!
Pupils were invited to conduct their own research to find out who the Lanarkshire Larder members are, and what they sell, to include in their recipe. As part of this process, we also encouraged pupils to investigate the importance of sourcing local produce, reducing food miles, supporting their local community and increasing awareness of careers within the Food and Drink Industry. We hoped this challenge could be used to support curriculum delivery but we hoped that parents, carers and families were involved in supporting young people to develop a recipe and enhance everyone’s awareness and understanding of local produce.
We had a variety of fantastic entries and chose 3 finalists to come along to New College Lanarkshire, Motherwell Campus on Thursday 26th of January for a cook off finale! The teams were Calderglen High in East Kilbride with Stella Byrne, Amy Sauders & Evan Boyle making Chicken Fajitas using chicken from The Butchery Kitchen. Calderside Academy in Blantyre with Hayley Stewart & Ava McNeils made Spicy Beef Stir Fry using Scotch beef from Coopers butchers in Bellshill and honey from Glen Heather.
But Taylor High School in Motherwell came out as the winners! Asma Farzand & Ava-Grace Bradshaw, both S3, made Coffee Cupcakes using milk & eggs from What’s Fresh, flour from Cadzow Bakehouse, chocolate from Bella Chocolate and coffee from Fower.
Winner Asma said 'The competition was such a good experience. I met lots of new people from other schools and the judges were absolutely fantastic. If I could I would definitely do it again, I loved creating my own recipe. I also enjoyed finding out about ingredients available from local food places in Lanarkshire.’
Asma’s teacher, Kelsey Bannatyne said 'The competition brought a great buzz to my S3 Health and Food Technology class. All the pupils were so excited to be involved in working with local producers, restaurants, cafes, hotels and farm shops to create their recipe using local and seasonal produce. As a school we were over the moon to find out our pupils made it into the final held at New College Lanarkshire, Motherwell. Both Asma and Ava-Grace were so grateful for the opportunity of attending the college to compete against other local schools with their own recipe. We are so proud of everyone involved, especially both our pupils who achieved 1st place in the first ever Lanarkshire Larder competition'.
Their winning recipe is now featured on our website and Stuart Jamieson from Fower has taste tested it already and would like to make and sell them in his roastery in Strathaven!
The girls also won a free farm visit for their class, which will be organised with the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) to help connect the journey of food. They hope to visit one of our members, Overton Farm in the Clyde Valley. Alongside a host of donated prizes from our generous Lanarkshire Larder members.
Our capable judges were Donna Hood - Operations Manager at Cairn Lodge Farm Shop & Kitchen – Lanarkshire Larder member. Paul Clark - Chef Lecturer at New College Lanarkshire, who said
“Today's competition had great value in promoting learning about Scottish and hyper local Lanarkshire produce as well as partnerships between producers and education. It provided the pupils an opportunity to explore product development and practise their culinary skills which they displayed to great effect in the New College Lanarkshire`s training kitchen. “
Thank you so much to all the schools who took part, the members who kindly donated ingredients and prizes, our fantastic judges and to Vas at New College Lanarkshire for hosting our event. We are looking forward to the next Recipe Challenge already!
