Northampton College students celebrated at catering awards 

The next generation of chefs and future stars of hospitality have been rewarded for their progress at an awards ceremony held at Northampton College.

Culinary Arts students at the College received trophies, vouchers and recipe books from celebrity chefs at the presentation held at the Booth Lane campus on Thursday, 12 June.

Matthew Cartwright, Sophie Kelly and Rhianna Picketts were named the Top Performing Student for Levels 1, 2 and 3 respectively while Ruby Wade won the award for the Highest Achieving Student.

Kaiden McCreath won the work experience award, Inez Bartlette was named the student who had shown the most perseverance and Bella McCue landed the patisserie and bakery skills category.

Nadiia Krotko was named the best part-time student, Taya Swartz won the Most Committed Student category and Lily Hopkinson won the Hospitality Award.

Phil Martin, curriculum manager for catering at Northampton College, said: “These awards celebrate the work of our extremely talented students who are set to make waves within the highly competitive hospitality and catering sectors. 

“They are at the start of their journey into a vibrant, exciting and incredibly rewarding industry and already they are showing the skill, flair and desire you need to stand out from the crowd and make a name for yourself.

“From the dishes they create to the service they provide, our winners are making their mark and impressing all the right people, creating opportunities for themselves and allowing their skills to shine. We’re proud of their achievements so far and we can’t wait to see what they do next.”

The ceremony, now in its 24^th year, were sponsored by a host of local employers and organisations, including the John Banner Scholarship Fund, WH Thomas, Delapre Abbey, Savona, Heygates, Mercure Hotel Northampton, Kettering Park Hotel and the initial founders of the awards – the North family.

Northampton College Culinary Arts students also lead the College’s restaurant, The Lane. The venue is open to the public during term time and combines contemporary fine dining with a relaxed brasserie style. Its facilities include production kitchens, pastry and skills training kitchens, a bakery and a front of house reception and bar.

Students have also previously enjoyed success in competitions such as Rotary Young Chef of the Year, the UK Skills Challenge and Restaurant Magazine’s College Restaurant of the Year and have been winners at the Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards.

Northampton College works closely with a range of employers, both locally and nationally, to ensure it is developing current industry skills and techniques, and is giving students the chance to enjoy high quality work experience with top chefs.