Photo: Sixth Form students at Pocklington School survey the ingredients and plan their dishes.

A Masterchef-style challenge brought out the inventive culinary skills of Sixth Formers when they transformed out-of-sell-by-date food donated by Tesco’s into appetising meals.

Eight Lower Sixth Formers competed in pairs to create dishes from ingredients including pork, peppers and sweet potatoes, strawberries and mangoes, plus a few store cupboard essentials.

Their creations, made without prior knowledge of the ingredients, were taste-tested by judges from Tesco and Pocklington School. They declared it a very close-run contest, with Tiger Brash and Peter Massey’s pork & mango curry with a side of Indian spiced vegetable crisps the narrow winner.

The other teams and dishes were: Jonty Goddard and Matthew Mann – fruity pork with a side of spicy roasted sweet potato fries; Harry Kneeshaw and Charlie Laudage – chilli passata pasta with olive, sun-dried tomato and pepper tapenade; Sam Noble and Guy Prew – chive and crème fraiche pork with garlic cabbage and sweet potato fries.

Judge Richard Craft, Tesco’s Community Food Connection Coach for the North of England, said: “The dishes were all of a good standard but Tiger and Peter won because overall, it had the best balance of texture and flavours. The use of vegetables to make the crisps was a great addition to the dish.”

Karen Berry, Community Champion at Tesco’s Market Weighton store, was equally impressed. She added: “The boys showed great technical skill and did very well to incorporate the food, which would otherwise have been wasted, into their dishes.”

Economics and Business Studies teacher Phil Donaldson was the third judge at the Masterchef Challenge, and Cookery Teacher Anne-Marie Salmon liaised with Tesco.

Mrs Salmon said: “The students come to my after-school cookery club and have made tremendous progress. There’s always a lot of teamwork and friendly competition - and this challenge was no exception. I’m very grateful to Tesco for getting so enthusiastically involved.”

The ingredients Tesco staff brought for the inventive menu challenge included: mushrooms; bagged cabbage and leeks; spinach; onions; sweet potato; carrots; parsnips; pork loin; strawberries; diced melon; fruit salad; mango and crème fraiche.

Tesco’s Community Food Connection donates surplus fresh food daily from all Tesco stores to local charities and not-for-profit organisations. The supermarket has pledged that by the end of March, no food fit for human consumption from its UK stores and distribution centres will go to waste. Already, 600,000 meals’ worth of food is redistributed every week. 

To view a Flickr album from the event, please click here.

Photo: The winning dish made by Tiger Brash and Peter Massey