Hackney School of Food in the running for design awards

We’re delighted to see the Hackney School of Food in the running for two design awards. 

It’s a regional finalist in the Civic Trust Awards 2021 and on the shortlist for the Hackney Design Awards – voting closes on the 26th November so please get online and vote for us if you can.

The school, set within the grounds of Mandeville Primary School – part of the LEAP Federation – opened earlier this year and offers seed to spoon classes to the local community and children free of charge.

In 2019, LEAP joined forces with Chefs In Schools and architects Surman Weston to transform what was an underused building and area of school grounds into an environment where children could access high-quality food education.

The Hackney School of Food also functions as a training hub for school chefs and we offer paid classes to businesses and for private hire. Other schools can also benefit from the classroom.

The Hackney School of Food has a vegetable garden, orchards, beehives, woodfired oven and a purpose-built cookery classroom where children learn to grow and prepare fresh produce for meals.

The classes on offer include cooking over fire, making pizzas in the wood-fired oven, learning basic kitchen skills – such as knife skills, butchery and vegetable prep, plus a focus on the field-to-fork ethos where students learn to grow the food they eat.

Key to the kitchen’s success is that it can be used comfortably by five-year-old children, as well as the tallest of adults. Surman Weston designed and developed height-adjustable cooking and washing stations, composed of simple, off-the-shelf components.