We recently provided Matthew Cross, of The Butchers Block in Burnholme, York, with chickens for his demonstration to GCSE Food Technology pupils at Manor Church of England Academy.
The idea behind the initiative was to allow pupils to work with poultry as the part of the GCSE curriculum requires students to butcher and joint a whole chicken prior to cooking it.
Tom Kingston, Sales Manager at T.Soanes and Son, said the demonstration was an excellent opportunity to showcase their high-quality poultry to pupils at the school.
“When we heard about Matthew’s idea, we wanted to get behind him as we supply chicken to The Butchers Block,” he added.
“For these GCSE pupils, learning to butcher a chicken is an invaluable skill and we wanted to enhance their experience by providing them with fresh, local and tasty poultry.”
Matthew Cross and his business partner and wife, Jessica taught the lesson to pupils in the one of the school’s dedicated food technology rooms. They then assisted pupils as they jointed chickens of their own at their work stations.
Jessica said: “This demonstration provided a lovely opportunity to share our passion and pass on our enthusiasm for butchery, as well as give something back to the community.
“It was nice to be able to answer any questions the pupils had and it was really interesting to see what recipes they came up with once they’d succeeded in jointing the chicken.”