Press Releases
Essex school pupils in training for food challenge
Date: 29 August 2006
Year 6 students from Colchester’s Birch Primary School and Ongar’s Moreton Primary School will certainly know their roux from their béchamel by the end of next week as they prepare to take part in the latest project to come out of Insite – the Essex Cultural Tourism programme.
During the week commencing 4th September two students from each school will be practising cooking dishes with TV Chef Mark Baumann from Baumann’s Brassiere, Coggeshall.
These dishes are based on Essex ingredients students have chosen in advance and will be locating the following week as part of an Essex Food Challenge as they travel across the county to pick up fresh ingredients – ending in a special competitive ‘cook-off’ with master chef Mark on 12 September at his acclaimed restaurant.
‘It’s great to be involved in such an exciting project which fires the children’s imagination and gets them thinking about the food they eat, and where it comes from,’ says Kate Moore, Headteacher at Birch Primary School, Colchester.
‘The project has inspired many of our oldest children to research seasonal foods and to create some mouth-watering menus. We even hope to include some of them on our own school dinner menu later in the year,’ adds Ann Bard, Headteacher at Moreton Primary School, Ongar
The Essex Food Challenge is supported by Essex County Council and Insite, The Essex Cultural Tourism Programme, and will also include a photographic response from artist James Fletcher, the current EDF Energy Awards Eastern Region Photographer of the Year.
‘Essex is a county of real diversity especially when it comes to food. The Essex Food Challenge is a brilliant celebration of locally obtainable and produced foods,’ says Mark Baumann.
Rob West, Director of Insite says, ‘We believe the Essex Food Challenge will further promote the county as a leading cultural destination in the East of England helping draw visitors into the county as well as letting residents know about the harvest of goodies on their own doorstep.”
James Fletcher’s photographic celebration will bring together art and food with a special booklet being produced and James’s work will appear with Mark Baumann and others in next March’s Essex Book Festival.
Essex Food Challenge Press Release 
For more information please contact:
Rob West
Tel: 01245 702454
Email: rob.west@exdra.co.uk
Stuart Graham
Tel: 01245 702415
Email: stuart.graham@exdra.co.uk
