Catering Students get educated to ‘prep’, ‘cook’ and ‘serve’ great tasting potatoes

This month sees the launch of a new educational initiative from AHDB Potatoes, to equip catering students with increased knowledge and practical skills to ‘prep’, ‘cook’ and ‘serve’ great tasting potatoes. Free of charge, and accessible to all colleges and universities, it will enhance potato-based dish repertoires and usage, as well as meet the needs of catering and hospitality courses.

The project centres on a new online resource for all budding chefs and caterers; prepcookservepotatoes.org.uk. It contains an extensive recipe bank, tips and advice on essential preparation and cooking skills, as well as a host of informative materials (maps, information videos and PowerPoint slides) across modules such as ‘Health and Nutrition’, ‘Farming’, ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Varieties’.

Sue Lawton, education co-ordinator at AHDB Potatoes:

“On the back of our existing educational projects (Grow Your Own Potatoes and Cook Your Own Potatoes) we identified a real need for additional further education support, particularly in light of the removal of Food Technology at A-level. Detailed research was undertaken with four colleges to explore their requirements and design a framework against which the resources have been developed.”

“We are delighted to launch prepcookservepotatoes.org.uk to bridge the resource gap to help students understand more about potatoes and increase their culinary skills. It is a deliberately flexible toolkit, allowing colleges the opportunity to select components and build a scheme of work to meet the specific needs of their courses and students. This will grow over time as part of our rolling research and feedback programme to ensure new resources match the needs, expectations and wish-lists of colleges.”

In the first instance, all colleges to sign up will receive an information divider for the files the students keep, with recipes and key potato information. They will also receive regular newsletters and be the first to hear about competitions and other new activity. In addition, all of the activity worksheets comply with City and Guilds and have been reviewed and approved by industry.

Sue Lawton:

“Despite the fact that potatoes are integral to menus, caterers are not aware of the many varieties available and their different tastes and textures.”

“We believe that prepcookservepotatoes.org.uk will help the next generation of chefs develop the skills and understanding to prepare and serve a wide range of potato-based dishes and ensure they remain at the heart of the nation’s diet.”

Prep, Cook, Serve Potatoes completes the trio of educational projects from AHDB Potatoes, focusing on primary, secondary and now, college learning. The Cook Your Own Potatoes project website cookyourownpotatoes.org.uk has also benefited from a re-fresh to improve navigation and accessibility to key cooking and nutritional information, while Grow Your Own Potatoes continues to go from strength to strength, engaging with over 400,000 children annually, giving them an understanding that potatoes are “good for them”.

In addition, AHDB’s promotional vehicle has been given a complete makeover to make it more interesting, fun, entertaining and relevant for children. The vehicle will be out and about at numerous education events and county shows, and remains available for industry to hire.

For more information about AHDB Potatoes education activity visit the marketing pages at potatoes.ahdb.org.uk