Young Chef

In previous years our Rotary District has run a competition that feeds into the national Rotary Young Chef Competition.  Unfortunately this District level event has not been held since Covid, but the Club recognised the success of the competition at the local level and decided we should continue with a Club Competition.  We hope that in future there may be a way in which our winner can progress to a District level competition, and possibly to Regional or National level.

Our 2024 Competition alllowed talented students to show their skills in the biggest and best Rotary Young Chef competition ever staged by the Club.  

Nine students from Northallerton School & Sixth Form College and Bedale High School battled against the clock in the annual culinary challenge organised by Northallerton Mowbray Rotary Club.

Each of the Year 10 students was tasked with producing a healthy two-course meal in two hours, with a tight budget for ingredients.

The winner was Sophie Hilton, from Northallerton School & Sixth Form College, who impressed the judges with her dish of hanging kebabs and chocolate brownies. It was a close-run thing, however, with Sophie claiming the title by just one point.

“This in undoubtedly the highest standard of cooking we have seen in the 15 years of this competition,” said ex-RAF Flight Warrant Officer Nick Wright, formerly of the RAF Leeming Catering team, who chaired the judging panel.

“Today’s finalists deserve the very highest praise because they made our job incredibly difficult. What really impressed us was the ingenuity behind their menu choices and the skills they applied to deliver them. The highest compliment I can pay these students is to say that any professional chef would be proud to deliver dishes of this quality.”

Winner Sophie was presented with a cookbook by Northallerton Mowbray Rotary Club president Anne Ash, and all the students received certificates to reward their efforts. An initial 22 students from both schools entered the competition, another record.

Rotary youth chair Kevin Hardisty thanked the schools for helping to organise the competition. “These finals have become a major highlight of the Rotary year and are going from strength to strength,” he said. “We’re very grateful to the teachers who put in so much hard work behind the scenes and to the students who consistently excel with their skills and enthusiasm.”

Also on the judging panel were Rotarians John Foster, Sue Adsett and Anne Wall.