Great British Bake Off Winner joins Queen’s from Milan

Our Year 11 GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition classes spent their lessons having all their Italian food questions answered by none other than the Great British Bake Off Winner 2021 Giuseppe Dell’Anno remotely from Milan, Italy.

Franky Gediking said the lesson was, “really very interesting with lots of information,” as Giuseppe spoke for an hour on different Italian dishes, ingredients, recipes and skills that the pupils could use (Jarno Ottavianelli added that it was so nice to hear someone talk from Italy and reminded him of speaking to his Italian grandparents!) Every pupil got an opportunity for their own culinary questions to be put to the international celebrity baker including Mr Mann, Head of Food and Nutrition, who got tips on different ways to cook octopus.

The First-Ever Taste Of ‘Tearless’ Onions Before They Go On Sale In The Supermarkets

Waitrose announced it will launch ‘Sunions’, which are the first ‘tearless and sweet onions’ available in the UK at selected stores this week. The only children in the country treated to an exclusive pre-launch taster of the country’s new vegetable are those taught at Queen’s College, Taunton.

Head of Food and Nutrition, Joe Mann said, “the new onions are ideal for our aspiring young chefs at Queen’s putting a stop to sobbing over chopping boards, making the vegetables safer to prepare and far more a-peeling!” It has taken more than 30 years of breeding less pungent varieties of onions to find a variety where the vapours released on chopping are not

powerful enough to bring tears to the eye. The so-called Sunions are not genetically modified products and have been grown through an all-natural cross-breeding programme creating a new tearless, sweet and mild onion.

UK Launch of Tearless Onions Exclusive Interview

On the UK launch day of the  the ‘Sunion’ we had an interview exclusive! Before making tasty tarts with the NEW onions Year 9’s had a LIVE streamed conversation this morning, quizzing the Director of Moulton Bulbs and the Oldershaw Group, Robert Oldershaw, who has brought this new vegetable to the UK supermarkets.

Game Changer: Queen’s Nominated for National Food Award!

This last week Queen’s College has been nominated in the national Eat Game Awards for the ‘Best Game Educator Award’ ahead of the national awards ceremony in London on the 24th March 2022.

Last term pupils at Queen’s learnt high culinary skills with local, wild, fresh pheasant and partridge and were taught about the sustainable and nutritional credentials of game.

One week GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition pupils learnt to portion local, wild, fresh pheasant and, using the last apples picked from Queen’s plus rosemary and lettuce picked from our new Queen’s Kitchen Garden, pupils produced a pan-fried pheasant breast dish on a garlic and rosemary bruschetta with a horseradish mayonnaise topped with julienne apple. A truly free-range rich flavoured (as well as low fat!)

Mr Mann, Head of Food and Nutrition, said, “we are absolutely delighted that Queen’s College has been nominated for such a prestigious national food award that recognises the fantastic culinary achievements and nutritional learning of our pupils.”

First Green Shoots for a New Year!

It has been lovely to return to school and see the winter sunshine over our new student kitchen garden at Queen’s College. The green shoots of the pupils’ very first garlic and onions can now be seen coming up and lettuce and chard are still doing very well. Soon the pupils will be able to prepare and eat them! Mr Mann, Head of Food and Nutrition, said “It’s a lovely time of the year and gardening in the winter feels so rewarding. To return after the holidays and see all the foods that the pupils planted come to life is so heartening”.