Light Bites, City College cooks for Starrs

The Edward Starr Charitable Trust is to launch a fundraiser called ‘Gallery’s Cooking for Starrs’, based on Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen with City College’s Gallery Restaurant. It will feature two teams undertaking a cook-off to see who will impress the guest diners the most. Tickets are priced at £25 per head, payable in advance, with the profits going to the Edward Starr Trust.

Participating in Ramsay’s role will be notable Brighton chef Ben McKellar, who runs the Gingerman Group with his wife Pamela. Ben, a past alumni, provides a fantastic and inspirational role model for the college’s current catering students when it comes to his success and sheer culinary imagination.

While the students have to prepare food to Ben’s very demanding standards, the teams will also be assessed on their business acumen as well as their culinary skill, including popularity of their menu and cost, all completed against the clock.

Ben says: “The restaurant will be split into two areas, each colour coded to represent a different team. Each team prepares its own three course menu for 50 people. The customers will not know who is in which team or who is cooking their food. It’s going to be an exciting night.”

Ben will be mentoring students throughout the process, giving them advice on menus and cookery suggestions. The prizes for the winners, is the opportunity to work in one of his restaurants.

Gallery’s Cooking for Starrs, 14 June. For tickets please contact Stacey Pederson on 01273 667711. Email sp3.ccb@ac.uk for information about the Catering Department at City College.