School cook’s recipe for success

Shazia Hashmi

Creative school cook Shazia Hashmi serves up tasty food every day – but it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

The 36-year-old who works at St Peter’s CE Primary School in Rochdale made the regional final of the School Chef of the Year competition after impressing judges with her main dishes, choice of ingredients, preparation methods and marketing.

At the recent final, held in Knowsley, where she went head to head with finalists from across the region, the mother of three received a ‘Highly Commended’ award for her mouth-watering dessert.

Ms Hashmi has worked at St Peter’s since February last year. She started her career as a general assistant and completed her NVQ2 and 3 at Hopwood Hall College.

She said: "I was delighted and shocked just to get to the final, so to get such a great reaction to my dessert made me really proud.

“I would like to thank the council's catering team, school catering staff and, of course, the pupils for their encouragement."

The annual competition puts the preparation, cooking, creativity and presentation skills of school chefs to the test as they work to produce a healthy-balanced two-course meal that would appeal to eleven year old school pupils - in just one and half hours.

Jill Hitchen, Facilities Manager at Rochdale Borough Council said: "We pride ourselves in providing children and young people with tasty, nutritious school meals and encourage them to make healthier choices.

“Staff like Shazia do a great job every day helping to make a major contribution to altering eating habits and improving diets. There’s no reason why she can’t win the competition next year!”