WOODFORD GREEN: Top chefs visit students (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WOODFORD GREEN: Top chefs visit students

3:34pm Friday 9th July 2010 in Education News By James Ranger

KEEN cooks at one of the area's secondary school were given tips by chefs from a world-famous restaurant this week.

Gary Lee, head chef at The Ivy restaurant in central London paid a visit to Trinity Catholic High School in Mornington Crescent, Woodford Green, on Monday (July 4) for a very special cookery lesson.

The chef and his team worked with around 20 year 8 pupils who had expressed an interested in food technology and wanted to learn more about cooking.

The school's press officer Rick Law said: “The head chef came along with a number of other chefs down to the school for the day, and spent the whole day with the students.

“They worked in groups to prepare starters and deserts, and part of that involved cooking whole lobsters.

“The deserts were all fruit and pastry-based and they had a chance to sample fruits they'd not eaten before, like gooseberries.

“The focus of that part of the activity was learning about presentation of dishes, and also about portion control, which is important when thinking about nutrition and healthy eating.

“As a follow-up, a group of year 11 GCSE students who are taking Food Technology are going to go to The Ivy in September for a day's work experience, which is the sort of thing that money can't buy.”