In a national first, cookery and nutrition students at Laurus Ryecroft have been lucky recipients of wild Alaska pink salmon to use in their classrooms, in a bid to improve their fish cookery skills.

The initiative is part of The Fish In Schools Hero programme which is run by the Food Teachers Centre, in partnership with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Together they will deliver an unprecedented 20,000 fillets of wild Alaska salmon to schools for cookery students to prepare up and down the country.

The programme aims to ensure that every child gets a chance to prepare, cook and eat fish before they leave school.

Students at Laurus Ryecroft learnt about sustainability and nutrition as well as developing delicious dishes with the Alaska salmon in their practical classes.

Food and Nutrition teacher Ciaran Ellis said, ‘We are thrilled that we have been selected to receive the wild salmon from Alaska. It means that our students can not only learn about wild fisheries and the different tastes, textures and usages, but also cook with the fish themselves.’ ‘Some of our students had never tried fresh fish before we joined the Fish Heros programme.’

To support teachers, Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute and Food Teachers Centre have also developed sample lesson plans, a training workshop and video recipes by chef and former Masterchef winner Dhruv Baker.