Finalists in the Sensational Soup competition were invited to cook their soups at chef Marco Pierre White’s restaurant in Berkshire. The winning entry, a roast carrot and cauliflower soup with beetroot bread, was created by Linda Redman, chef at Just Learning Nursery in Sunderland, using ingredients grown from the nursery garden.
As well as winning £500 worth of kitchen equipment, Linda had her soup served to guests dining at the restaurant that evening by Marco Pierre White’s executive chef, Andrew Bennett, who was a judge on the panel.
Andrew said, ‘It is fantastic to think that so many children at Busy Bees are enjoying such wonderful dishes at such an early age. It’s so important to give young children the right balance of nutritious and tasty food.’
Also celebrating was Arwen Yuill, manager of the Careshare Nursery in Glasgow, whose story The Peacock’s Tale won her £500 worth of books in the Busy Bees’ national story-writing competition.
The story-writing competition final also hosted an exhibition of pictures by the nine winners of a national art competition for children aged between three and five years old. Children in Busy Bees nurseries across the country had been asked to draw pictures based on the stories written by the nine story-writing competition finalists.
Mark Franklin, marketing director of Usborne Books and member of the judging panel, said, ‘It was great to see so many examples of children being inspired to join in, not only by helping to write the stories but by creating illustrations and learning more about subjects that featured in them.’