PROFESSIONAL Culinary Arts students from Reading College appeared in a live radio broadcast on Saturday, October 3.

The broadcast by RG2 Radio took place from 12-2.30pm at the King’s Road campus as part of the annual Reading Town Meal.

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Three professional culinary arts students recreated the dishes from recipes they designed for the Reading Town Meal website and were interviewed about their dishes by the radio presenter.

The students have been busy from the start of term designing free recipes and resources for the Reading Town Meal website.

They learnt about sustainability and what it really means to individuals, the local community and the planet, from locally grown produce to packaging and low carbon food production, animal welfare, public health and land use.

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The Mayor of Reading, Councillor David Stevens, attended the broadcast and delivered a keynote speech to open the event, which also included a quiz and interviews with local educational and development project, Food4families, who have been supporting households during lockdown and individuals who were running virtual workshops.

Some of the students also gave out free fruit and vegetables to local residents, which were donated by local allotment holders, foragers and growers, from the Reading Town Meal stall at Forbury Gardens.

Emily Kolsteren, 17, from Tilehurst, decided to cook a Dutch vegetable and cheese quiche, which she has cooked every year as part of a trip to Belgium, to inspire local residents to create a delicious and healthy meal.

All of the dishes were tasted by the radio presenter and team, as well as representatives from the Reading Town Meal.

Deva Douillet, 16, from Reading, took inspiration from a cake that her mum had made when she was a child and recreated a plum crumble cake.

She said: “It was really fun to get involved with the Reading Town Meal and it was nice to be able to come in and use a professional kitchen.

"I also really enjoyed taking part in the radio broadcast, it was like nothing that I’ve done before, and it was very lively.”

James Frost, Intern at Reading Town Meal said: “This year, we decided to do more virtual things because we couldn’t have our usual meal in Forbury Gardens due to the pandemic.

"The live radio broadcast enabled us to connect the local community together, even though we couldn’t all be in the one location.

"By working with the Reading College students, it allowed them to still cook the meals and give recipe suggestions on our website for people to cook at home alongside promoting local growers, sustainability and home grown food as part of the aims of the Reading Town Meal.

"The food that the students created was excellent and the online recipes have been very popular.”