Chef heads for final... (From Gazette & Herald)

Karen Adams, assistant chef at Easingwold School in the finals of School Chef Of The Year

10:47am Saturday 6th February 2010 in News

A SCHOOL chef from North Yorkshire is through to the finals of a national cookery competition.

Kath Breckon, of West Cliff Primary School in Whitby, is representing North Yorkshire in the finals of School Chef Of The Year. They will be held in Sheffield in May.

This is a fiercely fought-over national competition which has already required Kath to win local and regional heats.

Kath works for North Yorkshire County Caterers, the county council’s school meals service, which is now serving nearly one thousand more primary pupils a day compared with a year ago. Almost half of all North Yorkshire’s primary school children and 40 per cent of secondary students are now having a school meal, significantly above the national average.

Kath is one of dozens of school chefs from across the county who ensure school meals are freshly made each day.

At Easingwold School, Karen Adams starts her working day at 7am, rising with the lark to turn out batches of warm, freshly-baked bread for hundreds of pupils.

Karen has been assistant chef at the school for the past 11 years and over the last seven years has turned out increasing amounts of fresh bread by popular demand. Every day she makes hundreds of bread buns and healthy pizzas and also turns her hand to fresh pastry and cakes.

She said: “We’ve baked our own bread here as far back as I can remember, but I’ve been making more and more recently. I really enjoy making it and the students love to have it.” County Councillor Jim Clark, North Yorkshire’s executive member for schools, said: “We are proud of our school chefs, many of whom, like Karen and Kath, make a very special effort and go that extra mile to make delicious food from our fresh ingredients.”