Forest Students Mean Business helps Josh feel the sweet taste of success

Josh Jones felt the sweet taste of success when he triumphed in the final Forest Students Mean Business cookery challenge.

The 13-year-old from Newent Community School wowed the judges with his Apple Cider Cake using local ingredients during the event at Harts Barn Cookery School in Longhope on Tuesday, June 12.

He said: “I am really pleased to have won. I have always wanted to do cooking as a career and winning this has really helped me know that, that is what I want to do. It has been great working with the businesses on the project, which I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do otherwise.”

Josh along with five other students from Newent Community, Lakers and Wyedean School had been put through to the final after winning local heats.

They then went head to head at Harts Barn Cookery School for the final Forest Students Mean Business challenge, which is run by Forest Means Business and the Forest Education Business Partnership, to give businesses, schools and young people the opportunity to work together.

All entries were judged on the taste, appearance, team work and locality of ingredients by a panel of local business judges. Runners-up were Jacob Buckley,15, and Jesse Collins, 15, both from Wyedean, with their Family Pear Cider Cake and Amber Hodgson, 14, from Lakers, with her Lemon Drizzle Cake.

Stuart Barnes from Forest Means Business said: “The Forest Students Mean Business programme has been a great success and it is heart-warming to see so many talented young people here in the Forest of Dean. Hopefully this final challenge has inspired many of them to become the top chefs and bakers of the future.”

Since December more than 90 pupils at six Forest secondary schools have been set a range of challenges by local companies to test their entrepreneurial skill for the Forest Students Mean Business initiative.

The challenges have included designing an Olympic-themed phone app, creating a garden sculpture with recycled materials and building a bridge without the use of any fixings.

Andy Robertson of the Forest Education Business Partnership said: “This programme has seen amazing results and the students entries were of extremely high standards. All the students were original and their technique was great but the winner was well deserved incorporating fruit carving on the top of the cake and home-made egg custard on top. The baking nation is definitely safe in the hands of our young people.”