Two cookery students from Forth Valley College went head-to-head recently with dozens of the country’s finest piemakers – and came out award winners.
Cara Couper (19) and Makenzie McFarlane (19), both from Stirling, and Level 3 Professional Cookery students at the FVC Stirling Campus, were invited to take part in the recent Scottish Craft Butchers (SCB) traditional steak pie and speciality pie evaluations, which sees butchers from all across Scotland enter their finest pastries for judging by industry and consumer experts.
And Makenzie secured a top-ranking Gold Award for his traditional steak pie while Cara lifted an impressive Silver Award for her innovative Moroccan Lamb Pie.
Makenzie opted for beef cheek as the basis for his traditional steak pie, cooking it low and slow with onions, red wine and stock – a rich and beefy mixture he topped with his own handmade shortcrust pastry.
He said: “I’m pretty chuffed to have won a Gold Award for my pie. It took a few attempts to get it just the way I wanted, but I was really pleased with the end result and the judges seemed to like it too.”
Cara was keen to bring something different to the table for a speciality pie and opted for Moroccan tagine flavours within filo pastry. A trimmed lamb shank popping through the top crust added another creative touch.
She said: “I experimented with a lot of flavour combinations to get it just right. I learned a lot along the way – I’d never French trimmed lamb before, so that was a new skill to add to my training. These flavours are not to everyone’s taste so I’m really happy that the judges gave it their approval.”
The Forth Valley College Stirling Campus regularly hosts SCB evaluation events and FVC Chef Manager Gareth Davies explained that it was a perfect opportunity to get students involved.
Gareth, said: “We asked Scottish Craft Butchers if they would be willing to put products from a couple of our students through the evaluation process and they were happy to embrace the idea and support our young talent. Cara and Makenzie were enthusiastic about taking part and worked throughout their college break to perfect their pies for judging.
“Both Makenzie and Cara have done themselves and the College proud. They pitted themselves against some of the best in the business. Butchers who are making pies every day and working with new or tried and tested traditional recipes that have been in their families for generations. Cara and Makenzie started from scratch and produced award-winning pies and we’re extremely proud of them.
“To secure a gold and silver award in such a highly-contested competition is just remarkable. We’re really grateful to SCB for allowing the students to be judged along with their members and hopefully this will open the door to future similar partnership working.”
FVC’s Hospitality Technician Stephen McWilliam worked with the duo to take their pies from concept to delivery and he praised the innovation, dedication and skills shown by both.
Stephen, said: “We tried and tested a lot of ideas but both Cara and Makenzie knew when they had struck on their final product. They worked really hard and the end results were really impressive.”
Both students are off to Japan in February as part of a College food and culture trip. They then want to stay on at Forth Valley College and study for their HND in Professional Cookery before travelling overseas to broaden their skill set and experience.
Gordon King, Executive Manager with Scottish Craft Butchers, said Cara and Makenzie had proved worthy winners of their awards.
He said: “They faced up against some of the best in the business and came away with awards. Judges had no idea they were evaluating their pies and showed them no favours so it was an impressive entry from the College duo.
“We hold an average of two evaluations at Forth Valley College each year and working with the hospitality department to support their students is something we can certainly look at again in the future.”
