Celebrity Chef, Cyrus Todiwala OBE, stunned students at an upskilling masterclass event which took place at Bury St Edmunds based ICE Cook School on Tuesday.
The students were attending the annual upskilling day as part of the “A Passion to Inspire” competition, an annual initiative where teams of catering students from regional colleges work with well-known local Chefs as mentors and compete against each other to win a prize.
Students from West Suffolk College, their lecturers and mentor, Head Chef from the Angel Hotel in Bury St Edmunds James Carn, joined teams from Cambridge Regional College, Colchester Institute and the College of West Anglia at the event which took place at ICE on Tuesday 8th May.
Cyrus Todiwala is Chef Patron of Café Spice Namasté in London and is well known for his television and radio work including regular appearances on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen. Chef Todiwala talked to the students about Indian food, spices and the importance of good quality ingredients and demonstrated seven different dishes during the three-hour masterclass, leaving students inspired and spellbound at the various taste profiles.
Speaking at the event, Mr Todiwala commented: “I agreed two years ago to come and take this masterclass when I was approached by my good friend, Murray Chapman, who runs “A Passion to Inspire” and is a difficult man to say no to! For me, it was a pleasure to come today and to be given the opportunity to encourage students to look at the amazing range of high quality produce available to them in Britain. We looked today at different cuts of meat and explored the value of using the right British produce and forming relationships with good quality suppliers.
Infusions Group Managing Director, John Jackaman, who co-founded “A Passion to Inspire” initiative and who hosted the event at the ICE Cook School added: “We were honoured that Cyrus was able to take time out of what I know is a very busy schedule to support today’s event. The young people were completely engaged tasting the different flavours and exploring a different way of cooking and I think it’s fair to say they all went away enthusiastic and inspired to try new things which is what “A Passion to Inspire” is all about.”
Murray Chapman, who co-ordinates the annual competition added: “Today was definitely a success – seeing the students interact with Cyrus was a pleasure and the large number of people here speaks volumes about Cyrus’s reputation. “A Passion to Inspire” is an important initiative, and I’m really grateful that Cyrus spared the time to hold this masterclass. I think we all learned a lot!”
The final of this year’s “A Passion to Inspire” competition takes place at Cambridge Regional College on 22nd May and features teams from all four colleges.