College students compete in ‘Burger Cook-off’

On Tuesday 14 October, catering students were in fierce competition in the College’s first ever burger challenge.

The competition was hosted in the state-of-the-art training kitchens at the College’s PL1 restaurant, where the students were split into teams of four to create their own recipes.

The competition was judged by Sharron Robbie, Director of Marketing, Corporate Relations and Enterprise, PL1 Tutor, Lisa Stephens and Dave Cossar, from JD’s Grill, who specialises and creates many varieties of burgers.     

Dave said: “It was fantastic to see the enthusiasm and hard work put into the competition by all of the students. The creativity in the room was inspiring and it’s great to see that the College offers the students a chance to get hands on experience and put their theory into practice. This was a very worthwhile event all round.”

The teams costed and made four burgers between them and the joint winners were the Euro Burger and The Tower Burger. 

Hospitality and catering student, Sam Gans, 17, who on the back of this has been offered work experience at JD’s Grill, said: “It was great to have the opportunity to be involved in the burger challenge and I really enjoyed the event. The fact that we had to price up our ingredients and come up with the recipe from scratch was a fantastic experience.

“In the future I would like to run my own American-style burger van and this is the first step towards that journey.”

Chef Lecturer, Richard Farleigh, added: “It’s great for the students to get industry feedback whilst learning new techniques and skills.

“For the College, this is an innovative way of teaching the students to cook several complex dishes and they have learnt valuable lessons to take forward in their studies. Chefs are constantly judged and scrutinised, so this is a great experience for them.”

Elements from all burgers will be used to create a special PL1 Best Burger sold in the PL1 Deli to customers.

If you are interested in studying hospitality and catering, the College is holding a week of free course taster sessions for Year 10 and 11 pupils (ages 14 to 16) from Monday 27 to Friday 31 October. For more information and to book on to a taster session visit www.cityplym.ac.uk/tasterweek or call 01752 856800.