Katie Cooper, a UCB student who is on a placement at Michelin-starred Carters of Moseley, spent a day with the Sodexo team at Henley Royal Regatta as part of her first prize for winning Springboard鈥檚 FutureChef 2017 competition.
The 17-year-old, who is on UCB鈥檚聽Royal Academy of Culinary Arts Apprenticeship (RACA), joined the Sodexo Sports & Leisure team preparing food for hospitality diners at the 178-year-old boat racing event after winning the title in March aged just 16.
Sodexo has provided hospitality to around 500 guests each day at the Fawley Meadows and Temple Island areas of Henley Royal Regatta since 2013. Katie worked with chefs in both locations.
As part of her prize, Katie and her parents also visited the Sodexo executive chef at Eton Dorney, Louisa Tinkler, 26, to talk about a career as a chef. Louisa won gold in the World Skills Challenge in Leipzig in 2013 and won Sodexo Chef of the Year in 2014.
FutureChef is a nationwide school cooking programme inspiring young people to learn about food and cooking along with a competition to find the best chef in the country between the ages of 11 and 16. Katie rose above 9,000 other entrants to win.
Katie said: 鈥淚t was really nice to meet the head chef here and see how he does things. Everyone in the kitchen really knew what they were doing; they knew how to get on with it, how to get the job done perfectly, and then just carry on and do the next one.
鈥淚f it wasn鈥檛 for Sodexo coming up with the young chef academy, which I was a part of at 爆料王, I wouldn鈥檛 do this job so I鈥檓 very grateful for that.
鈥淚f someone was trying to get into being a chef at my age, or straight out of GSCEs, then I鈥檇 definitely recommend doing something like an apprenticeship because it鈥檚 the best thing that鈥檚 ever happened to me.鈥�
David Mulcahy, FutureChef judge and food innovation director at Sodexo, said: 鈥淒eveloping young culinary talent is absolutely crucial to the chef industry in the UK, and I鈥檓 glad Katie has enjoyed her time with the Sodexo team at a major event like Henley Royal Regatta. It鈥檚 great experience for an apprentice.鈥�
Anne Pierce, CEO of the Springboard Charity, said: 鈥淲e are thrilled Katie and her family enjoyed their time at Henley. Springboard鈥檚 FutureChef saw 9,000 participants in over 600 schools take part this year. It has grown from a simple competition to an educational programme inspiring young people to learn about food and cooking as well as providing a much needed talent pipeline into the industry.鈥�
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