Scottish Schools Burger Challenge Finalists Unveiled

The creativity and innovation of Scottish youngsters will be celebrated at the Royal Highland Show next week in the finals of a Scotch Butchers Club competition.   Form 1 pupils from three finalist schools have been unveiled as the finalists of the “My Town, My Burger’ competition run by Quality Meat Scotland. The pupils are from St Stephens High School in Port Glasgow, Currie Community High School in Edinburgh and The Nicolson Institute on the Isle of Lewis.   Working with local Scotch Butchers Club members to design a burger making use of quality Scottish ingredients, the foodie first-years used Scotch Beef PGI, Scotch Lamb PGI and Specially Selected Pork alongside local flavours to inspire their creations.    Four pupils from St Stephens in Port Glasgow worked with Drew McKenzie from Robert Alexander Butchers to create their “Chilli-ing on the Clyde” burger, using Scotch Beef.    Euan Twyford from Currie Community High School worked with John Saunderson from John Saunderson Butchers to create the “Currie Curry Burger”, using Scotch Lamb.   And Callum MacRichie from The Nicolson Institute took inspiration from the Isle of Lewis’ native language, with the Gaelic “Big Marag Burger” using Specially Selected Pork with help from Neil Finlayson from Charles Macleod butchers.   Jenni Henderson, Health and Education Executive with QMS said: “The competition is a chance for Scottish schools to show off the imagination and creativity of their pupils in developing a new burger product.   “It’s great to see young people being inspired by Scotland’s larder and making use of the flavour and quality of ingredients we have available on our doorstep and the standard of this year’s entries was excellent.    “The ‘My Town, My Burger’ theme clearly struck a chord with the youngsters and we received almost 250 entries with a huge variety of original ideas.”   Six semi-finalist groups, including pupils from Kinross High School, Stronsay Junior High School and Mearns Academy, were judged at the Edinburgh School of Food and Wine by Graeme Findlay, SQA Qualifications Manager and Paul Boyle, owner of Boghall Butchers.   Last year’s winning burger, from Greenwood Academy pupils supported by local butcher Pollok Williamson, proved so successful it has been introduced to 45 primary schools and nine academies in East Ayrshire.