Crème de la Crème winner visits Brock to demonstrate skills to local school teachers
15 November 2017
Winner of BBC 2’s Crème de la Crème, RAF Chief Corporal Ian Mark, visited Brock on Monday to showcase his sugar and chocolate skills to 14 food technology teachers from local schools.
The demonstration lasted 45 minutes and was followed by a Q&A session about how to produce outstanding sweet dishes and what it was like to compete on TV.
Ian Mark was one of a three-man military chef team who won the Crème de la Crème title earlier this year.
Prior to participating the hit TV show, he contacted former Ritz pastry chef and Brock lecturer Allan Collier through the College for technical advice on how to work with chocolate and sugar.
Allan duly obliged and gave the team the benefit of his knowledge, skills and experience, not knowing then the success the trio would eventually achieve on national television.
Their victory was even more remarkable because they competed against professional chefs from the catering industry.
Chief Corporal Mark said of his team’s TV success: “It was really enjoyable and stressful due to really tight time constraints, but overall a brilliant experience and well worth it.”
He added: “Education plays a big part in success because without a good education the pastry chefs of the future won’t have the detailed knowledge required to take them to the top of their profession.”
Head of Hospitality Studies at Brock, John MacArthur said afterwards: “We’re very proud to have excellent relationships with the Army, Navy and RAF, as well as local schools.
“On days like these you can really see the benefit of maintaining those strong links,” he added.
