Red Anywhere’s new kitchens in Littlehampton, West Sussex hosted the final of the Lion’s Den Challenge which is an annual event for young adults from Littlehampton Community School to be put to the test in lots of different scenarios and challenges!

4 Students from Littlehampton School had already completed 3 demanding challenges over the last 3 months and now the school wanted their final test to really test them….. It certainly did!

Sara Hopkins - Community Liaison Manager at Littlehampton School contacted me and asked if i would come up with a challenge for the final test, I thought about it and quickly said yes!

i decided to set them a challenge of creating a Pud for a celebrity that had to have a wow factor, this was quite significant as I had recently had to do the same for R and B Singer Jamelia a couple of weeks ago.

All 4 students had 1 hour to prepare a dessert for 2 people and serve to a panel of judges. The students only had 5 days to do their research and come up with a recipe and then purchase the ingredients and also practise the dish at home!

They were marked on seasonality of ingredients, presentation, flavour, texture and balance and also the way they worked in a commercial kitchen environment!

i have to say they all did very well and the standard was very good as these students were not chefs and some may of not ever cooked a thing in their life! They all stood up to the challenge and all served their puds within the 1 hour time limit…. Phew!

The judges were made up of Me, Editor of the Littlehampton Gazette, Deputy Mayor of Littlehampton and members of Arun District Council…. We deliberated and cogitated and had an extended discussion on the eventual winner.

It was very close and we also had to take into account the last 3 challenges they had all been in, they were not just judged on this challenge but on overall….. First prize was a Laptop and an IPod so a lot at stake!

We eventually decided on a winner and got the students and guests together, I spoke of the standard reached by all the students and how proud they should all be of their efforts, but there could only be 1 winner and that was………..Andrew Sula who created a mouth watering dessert of White Chocolate Mousse with fresh crushed Raspberries set in a White Chocolate Cup and surrounded by a fresh Raspberry Sauce!

Second place went to Rosie Lewis who created an upside down cheesecake which tasted sublime!

Joint third went to 2 lads, Simon Nicholls and Chris Holland-Skinner both did very well and one of the lads even attempted to create a recipe from Gordon Ramsay’s book…… very brave!

Well done to you all and as I said earlier watch out Ramsey, Oliver and Delia!

Dan Clarke

Creative Chef Red Anywhere