Winner Announced in Schools Street Food Challenge

The winner of an innovative “Butchery and Beyond” schools street food competition has been announced today (June 21st), on the Quality Meat Scotland stand at the Royal Highland Show.

Our Lady’s Roman Catholic High School, were crowned winners in the competition which saw teams of youngsters from three Scottish schools challenged by award-winning Scottish butcher, S Collins & Son, to create a new street food dish.

This initiative, set up in a partnership between Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Scotland, and Scotch Butchers Club Member, S Collins & Son, introduced the pupils to cooking with Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb or Specially Selected Pork products.

In its second year, the competition further challenged pupils to work out costings for their product and create a marketing campaign with the aim of helping students and educators understand the variety of careers available across the food chain, the routes to access them and the skills required by employers.

The winners of the competition are: Tea Boyd, Ciaran Macintyre, Megan MacCrimmon and Elise Congalton from Our Lady’s R.C. High School who created Spicy Pork Pinwheels.

The winners and runner’s up were rewarded for their creativity and innovation with a performance from emerging local star Saskia Eng, who reached the knockout stages of ITV’s The Voice UK this year.

The young star wowed the crowd with her rendition of ‘Proud Mary’ by Tina Turner and ‘Make Your Own Kind of Music’ by Paloma Faith.

Jennifer Robertson, Health & Education Coordinator, QMS, said: “Congratulations to each of the winning team, we are very impressed with the finished dishes and are we are so pleased to have been part of this initiative.

“The quality and flavour of Scotch Beef PGI, Scotch Lamb PGI and Specially Selected Pork is second to none and it’s important for young people to gain an understanding of the care and attention to detail involved in the production of these quality ingredients.”

As a proud member of the Scotch Butchers Club run by QMS, S Collins and Son butcher is committed to sourcing top quality Scotch Beef PGI, Scotch Lamb PGI and Specially Selected Pork from approved suppliers who are part of the QMS Quality Assurance Scheme.

Stewart Collins, Senior Partner, S Collins & Son said: Stewart Collins, Senior Partner, S Collins & Son, said: “We are delighted to have been involved in the Butchery and Beyond initiative and see the pupils showcase their skills with fantastic local produce.

‘’It is important to S Collins & Son that the next generation are aware of the variety of food and drink careers that are out there. I am also keen to also help youngsters understand the variety of high quality produce that is available on our door step,” said Mr Collins

“We are committed to supporting the local community and this initiative has helped bring the school curriculum to life,” he added.

Moira Stalker, Skills Manager, FDF Scotland, said

“Congratulations to the finalists and winners of this year’s Butchery and Beyond competition. The judges enjoyed tasting the final products and found it difficult to pick a winner. This challenge showcases the variety of exciting careers and processes that are involved in creating one product and getting it to market.”