The 2011 British Council Employability Catering Challenge brought together apprentices from some of Algeria’s best catering schools to prove their culinary, creative and employability skills in the heat of competition.

Teams of four apprentices from Cible Ecole, High School of Tourism and Hostelry (HSTH), International Hotel School (IHS) and Ecole Benbrim, took part in the month-long challenge. Each week, after preparing a three course meal based on a theme ingredient, the lowest scoring team was eliminated. By the fourth week only one team remained to prepare a three course meal of their choice for the judging panel of top Algerian chefs, and renowned British chef, Joseph Rainey. Joseph also spent time with the finalists preparing them for the final challenge with a cookery master class. The judges focussed on the apprentices’ preparation and presentation skills, along with their ability to be creative and think outside the box and their team work, problem solving, time management, communication and leadership skills. The judges remarked that week after week, the apprentices demonstrated high cooking standards even though they were still in the early stages of their training.

There was a great deal of media interest throughout the competition – including interviews with the students, tutors and British Council on national breakfast television.

The 2011 winners were the apprentices from the High School of Tourism who each received a laptop.  The school was also presented with a trophy and a professional oven.   Chef Ikram Abdelghafour, Chef Tutor at the school described the challenge as; ‘an amazing experience - thanks to the British Council and the Catering Challenge my apprentices have learnt in one month what they are supposed to learn in 18 months.’