Students make most of cooking rations

They've come a long way from the days of hard tack and bully beef - and now catering students have turned to making Army rations even tastier.

The Army challenged teams of student chefs from colleges across the West Midlands to use a 24-hour ration pack - often referred to as a "rat pack" - to create a three-course meal for 10.

And a team from South Staffordshire College's Cannock campus won the competition held at MOD Stafford.

Each pack contained four cans of stewing steak, powdered egg, boiled sweets, pasta and dried fruits.

The teams then had three hours to use their flair, imagination and skill to cook up a starter, main course and dessert.

They had to prepare the food under canvas and camouflage nets, using burners.

Under these conditions it made it more difficult for them to come up with tasty dishes and also made it hard for things to turn out as the students intended.

The competition was judged by Michelin starred chef, Simon Haigh, who is executive chef at Mallory Court in Leamington Spa.

There were 22 teams doing culinary battle over two days.

The winning team will now be given the opportunity to cook for Brigadier Mark Banham MBE and spend a day in the kitchen with Simon and his team at Mallory Court.

Lt Col Stuart Cattermull, commander of regional recruiting for the West Midlands, said: "Army Chefs play an essential part in the wellbeing of soldiers, as they require strength and stamina and neither are possible without nutritional food.

"This is why we think it's important to encourage chefs of the future and so hosted this catering challenge to offer the students a chance to put their culinary skills to the test, in a practical situation, which challenged them to the limit."