Six-year-old Sky Bebbington was named Brakes Junior Food Critic after impressing judges with her review of Brakes Macaroni Cheese.
Bebbington was the youngest of the five finalists invited to the London Marriott County Hall hotel on 30 January to enjoy a special Brakes lunch menu, prepared by executive chef Christopher Basten and sous chef Sanjay Jadhav.
Brakes launched the competition to find the best young food critic to tie in with its new range of nutritionally-balanced individual frozen children's meals for three- to 10-year-olds which contain no more than 30% of the Guideline Daily Amounts for five-to 10-year-olds, for calories, sugars, fats and salt.
Open to five- to 11-year-olds, the first stage of the competition required entrants to write a review of no more than 150 words about the best meal they ever had in a pub, restaurant or leisure venue and from these entries the five finalists - Hannah Glover, aged 11, Rebecca Garrard, aged 10, Tyler Camble, aged seven, Tyler Sherwood, aged seven, along with Bebbington - were chosen.
At the final at the London Marriott County Hall hotel, where they were looked after by private dining manager Joe Carter, the children chose from a menu of the five Brakes meals - Chicken Curry, Creamy Fish Pie, Macaroni Cheese, Spaghetti Bolognaise and Meatballs & Pasta Shapes - followed by a choice of five ice creams from the Great British Ice Cream Co., and after dining were asked to write a review of their meal.
The judges, who included Christopher Faulkner, director of Creative Foods (the manufacturing division of the Brakes Group), were impressed that Bebbington, at just six years old, had included comments on presentation, taste and texture in her review (see below).
For her prize, she received tickets for herself and her parents to the London Eye and Sea Life London Aquarium for that afternoon.
The winning review
"When I first saw my macaroni cheese its presentation was very good because I liked how it was spread out and sprinkled. It tasted nice and cheesy and was soft to chew. I wasn’t too sure on the parsley because normally I don’t like it and I just didn’t think it went with the cheese and the macaroni. The ice cream was minty and it was delicious with the chocolate sticks and so chocolatey."
Sky Bebbington, aged six