City of Armagh High School students in Big School Cook Off finals

Martha Johnson and Tilly Henderson from City of Armagh High School, have made the shortlist for the Mount Charles Big School Cook Off.

The team will cook their ‘Burrito Special’ recipe at the finals held at Belfast Metropolitan College, Titanic Quarter on Wednesday, March 4, 2020.

Ahead of the final, the shortlisted teams will also be invited to perform a cookery demonstration of their dish, at their local SuperValu store in January.

The first stage of the competition asked students to submit a recipe in either video or word format, for a main course dinner costing £10 or under, with consideration to creativity, health and the use of locally sourced produce.

Shortlisted County teams were chosen following intense deliberation of over 100 entries from post primary schools across the country. The finalists are:

· Martha Johnson and Tilly Henderson, City of Armagh School High School, Armagh

· Sophia Woods and Niamh Reynolds, St Killian’s College, Antrim

· Ava Hardiman and Meabh Himestra, Scoil Mhuire, Donegal

· Ciara Rivas Kelly and Thandie Soppo Nsue, St Joseph’s College, Belfast, Down

· Johnny Regan and Gareth Linton, Rainey Endowed School, Derry

· Cainnecha Ferguson and Grainne Duffy, St Franchea’s College, Fermanagh

· Eimear Kelly and Milly Hoban, Loreto Grammar School, Tyrone

Caitriona Lennox, Business Development Manager at Mount Charles said: “Firstly I’d like to thank all the teachers and students who took time to enter the competition this year. The panel of judges were completely blown away by the talent displayed in the submissions we received, which made it incredibly difficult to arrive at the final shortlist.

“We launched the Big School Cook Off initiative to encourage the development of cookery skills in classrooms. The number and quality of the entries we received, demonstrates to us that children are cooking, and we hope that by creating initiatives such as the Big School Cook Off that we will uncover and nurture future talent for the hospitality industry in Northern Ireland.”

Congratulating the finalists, Head of Marketing for SuperValu, Brendan Gallen, said: “At SuperValu we have a focus on Real Food and Real People and being a part of the Big School Cook Off allows us to encourage young people and families to get cooking. We can’t wait to welcome the finalists into stores in January to showcase their fantastic dishes.”

Each county winning team will receive an apron, a finalist plaque for their school and a chef’s jacket to wear to the finals and the overall winning team will receive a plaque for the winning team, Private Box VIP tickets to an SSE Arena Ice Hockey match and their school will get a £100 voucher for catering equipment of their choice

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