Food and Nutrition pupils received an extra special delivery of hundreds of pounds of fresh local rope-grown mussels to prepare and cook as part of a ‘Fish in School Hero’ programme. The aim of the programme is to ensure that every child gets a chance to prepare, cook and eat fresh fish and sustainable seafood supported by local fish suppliers. Pupils from various year groups took part in mussel’s masterclass where they prepared and cooked up safely a selection of beautifully presented dishes based around mussels.
Pupils made many dishes including called ‘Angry Mussels’ a Jamie Oliver recipe including chilli, garlic, tomatoes and fresh rosemary grown at Queen’s College and Thai Style Mussels with fresh coriander grown at Queen’s College and even Moules Marinière with fresh parsley grown at Queen’s College.
Head of Food and Nutrition Mr Mann explained, ‘Our aspiring chefs have been busy learning how to prepare and cook local, sustainable, fresh seafood. They have learnt how fresh South West mussels are rope-grown and harvested sustainably and can provide us with key nutrients for our diets. I was highly impressed with the pupils, most of them had never prepared fresh shellfish before and they all got stuck in, were engaged and focused throughout and prepared some superb dishes. Many students tasted mussels for the very first time and loved them!
The grade ‘A’ fresh rope-grown local mussels arrived at Queen’s College courtesy of Pat Currah, Onshore Manager at the Fowey Shellfish Company and former Hydrographic Cartographer from Taunton who said, “We are delighted to support the food teaching by supplying our mussels to Queen’s College. It is so important for children to have access to foods they may not otherwise try and be the next generation of seafood enthusiasts. Mussels are so quick and simple to cook, are great for you, and great for the environment so are perfect for the pupils to try”.
Huge thanks to Taunton’s very own David Sheppy, of Sheppy’s Cider for the alcohol-free local cider to cook our mussels in.
