Brendan Gallen, head of marketing at SuperValu; Catriona Lennox, Mount Charles business development manager; Noel McMeel, executive head chef of Lough Erne Resort; and James Street South owner and head chef Niall McKenna announce the shortlisted Big School Cook Off finalists.

Ciara Rivas Kelly and Thandie Soppo Nsue, from St. Joseph’s College in south Belfast, have made the shortlist for the Mount Charles Big School Cook Off, in association with SuperValu.

The team will cook their ‘Irish Coddle’ recipe at the finals, which will be held at Belfast Metropolitan College, Titanic Quarter on Wednesday 4th March 2020.

Ahead of the final, the shortlisted teams were invited to perform a cookery demonstration of their dish at their local SuperValu store in January.

The first stage of the competition asked students to submit a recipe in either video or word format, for a main course dinner costing £10 or under, with consideration to creativity, health and the use of locally sourced produce.

Shortlisted county teams were chosen following intense deliberation of over 100 entries from post primary schools across the country. The finalists are:

• Ciara Rivas Kelly and Thandie Soppo Nsue, St Joseph’s College, Belfast, Down 
• Ava Hardiman and Meabh Himestra, Scoil Mhuire, Donegal 
• Martha Johnson and Tilly Henderson, City of Armagh School High School, Armagh
• Sophia Woods and Niamh Reynolds, St Killian’s College, Antrim 
• Johnny Regan and Gareth Linton, Rainey Endowed School, Derry 
• Cainnecha Ferguson and Grainne Duffy, St Franchea’s College, Fermanagh 
• Eimear Kelly and Milly Hoban, Loreto Grammar School, Tyrone 

Caitriona Lennox, business development manager at Mount Charles, said: “Firstly I’d like to thank all the teachers and students who took time to enter the competition this year. The panel of judges were completely blown away by the talent displayed in the submissions we received, which made it incredibly difficult to arrive at the final shortlist.

“We launched the Big School Cook Off initiative to encourage the development of cookery skills in classrooms. The number and quality of the entries we received, demonstrates to us that children are cooking, and we hope that by creating initiatives such as the Big School Cook Off that we will uncover and nurture future talent for the hospitality industry in Northern Ireland.” 

Congratulating the finalists, head of marketing for SuperValu, Brendan Gallen, said: “At SuperValu we have a focus on Real Food and Real People and being a part of the Big School Cook Off allows us to encourage young people and families to get cooking.”

Each county winning team will receive an apron, a finalist plaque for their school and a chef’s jacket to wear to the finals and the overall winning team will receive a plaque for the winning team, Private Box VIP tickets to an SSE Arena Ice Hockey match and their school will get a £100 voucher for catering equipment of their choice.