The Cookery School at the Isle of Wight College has won a major prize at the British Cookery School Awards.
It won the Best Specialist School title, according to iwradio.co.uk, with customer liaison officer Malcolm Alder-Smith saying it was a “real honour” to be recognised in this way. The school is located in Newport.
Mr Alder-Smith said: “Years of hard work have gone into the school to get it where it is today. What the team have managed to establish is even more of an achievement – we were up against six other brilliant cookery schools, so to be the outright winner was a total surprise.”
In addition to shorter courses that may interest holidaymakers staying at hotels in Isle of Wight towns, the college offers regular training in a range of specialist options; for example, training for people who want to cook at sea.
The scale of the success at the awards ceremony on Wednesday (November 14th) is underlined by the fact that the Isle of Wight facility beat a number of high-profile rivals. Mr Barden, who also acted as head judge, claimed the island school sets a global benchmark for cookery training.
According to iwcp.co.uk, this included the celebrated Padstow Seafood School set up by television chef Rick Stein. The ceremony took place at the Vintner’s Company in London, BBC Radio Two presenter Nigel Barden on hand to dish out the accolades.