Reading Professional Cookery students create dessert for Pride of Reading Awards

Professional Culinary Arts students from Reading College and University Centre created and prepared the dessert for the Pride of Reading Awards on Friday 17 October at The Hilton Reading.

The students were asked to create and prepare the dessert after The Kitchen won the Hospitality Award at the Pride of Reading Awards last year.

Their creation was developed under the guidance of Paul Foley, Professional Cookery Teacher.

Over three days, the students prepared 300 chocolate layered raspberry sponge cake desserts consisting of a chocolate cake at the bottom, a chocolate ganache, vanilla sponge, raspberry gel, milk chocolate ganache, chocolate sponge on top, topped with a mirror glaze, garnished with a raspberry gel, raspberries and chocolate decorations.

At the awards ceremony, the students walked on to the stage to the theme from Professional MasterChef. The students were presented with a framed thank you certificate from the Pride of Reading Awards, by Barney Firth, Creative Director from Cream Design, sponsors of the Hospitality Award of which The Kitchen were the winners in 2024.

The team were supported in the challenge by Nilanka Rosham, Executive Head Chef at the Hilton Reading where the desserts were prepared.

He said: “We worked together to make sure the dessert was practical to deliver but delicious.”

Jack Swift, 18, from Bracknell is studying a Professional Culinary Arts Level 3 Advanced Diploma at Reading College and University Centre.

He said: “It was a very good experience to see what catering for an event at a bigger scale was like. Getting out 300 plates and everything had to look the same, it was very much about consistency and making sure every dessert was perfect.

“It was stressful but a good experience which sets me up for the industry, as it won’t be so nerve-wracking the second time around.

“I’ve never done anything that before, I’ve previously done buffets for 70 people but preparing 300 desserts was quite different. It was about staying focused, always asking questions and making sure every element was good.

“It helped me to learn techniques to make big batches of stuff, making sure that each dessert had a level of height and depth to them. It was nice to work with a new team of chefs and learn from them.”

Paul Foley, Professional Cookery Teacher at Activate Learning, said: “It was a good challenge for the students as they had to think about preparing the desserts on a mass scale and in line with the brief that was set by Hilton Reading.

“It gave them a really good opportunity to work in a large professional kitchen and see a different side of catering for a larger event to what we do here at college or where they work part-time.

“It helped them to learn to work as a team together as there were various stages of the dessert, so they had to communicate with each other and work to a specific time frame.

“They also got to work with nicer ingredients and use some of the equipment that is used in industry. It was nice for them to see how the Hilton and the team operate on a large scale.

“Thank you to the Pride of Reading Awards for giving our students this amazing opportunity, which they all enjoyed and will benefit their future careers.”

Sally Swift, Pride of Reading Organiser at Pride of Reading CIC, said: “Our thanks to Reading College and University Centre Professional Culinary Arts students, for their imaginative work and enthusiasm in devising and preparing the chocolate layered raspberry sponge cake dessert for the 2025 Awards Lunch.

“The dessert complimented the meal and was truly delicious.”