Kimbolton students’ first-ever pop-up restaurant has raised over £1250 to build a kitchen in an orphanage in India. The Fourth Form (Year 10) GCSE Food and Nutrition pupils efforts drew plaudits aplenty after 60 diners were treated to a superb meal prepared, cooked and served by the students.

The 19 pupils spent the day with four professional chefs from The White Horse at Tilbrook, a local country pub, preparing four different canapés, focaccia for the tables, a starter, main and dessert - and even homemade pizza for their own tea before service! Led by Joe Buckley, the White Horse team demonstrated methods and supervised our pupils while creating a fun, friendly yet highly focussed working atmosphere.  Throughout the day, as well as improving their culinary skills and learning new techniques, the 14- and 15-year olds had the chance to find out first hand about the realities of working in a professional kitchen. They concluded the day by transferring the food to the Castle, then plating and serving it to their families and a handful of staff.

The menu comprised butternut squash and mozzarella arancini as the starter, a mediterranean chicken main course and a rhubarb and ginger tart for dessert. Each course was served with a number of delicious accompaniments, making the whole menu wonderful to eat but complex and demanding to prepare.  Diners were asked to ‘pay what it’s worth’, with the proceeds going towards the building of a new kitchen in an Indian orphanage. The meal and accompanying raffle raised over £1250 for the Baale Mane girls’ orphanage in Bengaluru.

Afterwards, Evie reflected, “It was a long day but an amazing evening.” Lucy agreed, “It was 10 hours work for an hour of happiness, but so worthwhile.” Henry, who had worked on the dessert said, “I learned that presentation is everything and found it really enjoyable.”

Head of Department, Mrs Clare Bennett said, “A 12-hour day is tiring for any chef but our pupils really enjoyed every minute of this challenge. Our heartfelt thanks go to Joe, Kieran, Steve and Vince from The White Horse at Tilbrook for giving their time and providing so many of the ingredients used today. It was great to see our children replicate some of The White Horse’s great food and to be able to raise so much money for the orphanage in India.”

More photographs from the day - including the menu - are in our photo gallery.