For this issue of What’s Cooking, we revisit The School Food People’s School Chef of the Year 2026 finals and meet two standout winners: national SCOTY champion Ben Finn and Melanie Johnstone, recipient of The School Food People Apprentice/Trainee Award. Their stories reveal the skill, resilience and creativity shaping school food today.
Sponsored by Premier Foods and supported for the fourth year by the Worshipful Company of Cooks with UNOX, the competition puts school catering talent firmly in the spotlight. Every dish had to meet the School Food Standards and Eatwell Guide, work in a busy dining room and, most importantly, appeal to young customers.
Finalists are selected through paper judging, regional heats and wildcard places, bringing menus that balanced creativity with practicality. Judges praised the stronger focus on plant-based ideas, waste reduction, sustainability and food children would genuinely want to eat.
At the centre of the celebration was Ben Finn from St Leonard’s RC Comprehensive School, part of Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust. A runner-up in 2025, Ben returned with a concept built around the idea that “small changes make a big difference”: reducing meat content without compromising on flavour.
The runner-up was Taher Jibet from Budmouth Academy, Impact Food Group, who received £500. His plant-based main course featured sausage wrapped in borlotti bean falafel with lemon aioli, followed by banana and custard noodles with date and brown sugar toffee.
Finn received the SCOTY trophy, a £1,000 cash prize and invitations to catering industry events. UNOX will also take the winner and representatives from The School Food People on a gastronomic trip to Italy.
His winning menu paired Mexican-style crispy belly pork slices with chickpea and sweetcorn fritters and spicy beans. Dessert was a layered strawberry, mixed berry and custard cake with vanilla Angel Delight — a nostalgic, pupil-friendly finish with a contemporary competition edge.
Third place went to wildcard finalist Richard Hardy from St Robert of Newminster Catholic School, Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust, who received £300. He served Indian-style crispy chicken with Bombay potatoes, cauliflower and masala gravy, followed by a Yorkshire pudding crumble with apple and blackberry compote and custard.
Head judge Louise Wagstaffe praised Ben’s culinary skill, creativity and clear understanding of what makes nutritious food both appealing and workable in school catering. The judging panel also included former SCOTY winner Sharon Armstrong, Past Master Marcus Appleton from the Worshipful Company of Cooks and 2025 winner Erin Ward.
What’s Cooking caught up with Ben a month after his win to find out what drives him, how school catering changed his career, and why the competition still matters after the trophy has been lifted.
Ben Finn laughed as he describes his route into school catering, because it was certainly not the neat, straight-line career plan he once imagined. Growing up in the Northeast, he enjoyed school and sport and expected university to be the obvious next step. Biomedical science was the plan. Kitchens, at that point, were not.
But Ben discovered he was better suited to practical, high-energy environments, so he left university part-way through his course and took a job in a pub restaurant, first behind the bar and then in the kitchen. It clicked. A Level 3 NVQ in cookery followed, along with the hands-on experience that would shape him as a chef.
“I love the team mentality,” he says. “I played athletics and football at school, and kitchens have that same close-knit feeling. I love a busy service when everything goes right. As a chef, you get instant results — and instant gratification.”
Pubs, restaurants and hotel kitchens followed, including Lumley Castle Hotel in Chester-le-Street, where he worked his way up to Senior Chef de Partie. Later, marriage and children made him rethink the long evenings and weekends that came with restaurant life.
At Haswell’s Homer Hill Farm Shop, Ben found a more creative rhythm: scratch cooking, bread, pies, lunches, afternoon teas and room to experiment. Before long, he was head chef.
Agency work eventually took him into schools, and a recommendation from Cluster Manager Luca Tomassetti led him to St Leonard’s in Durham, where he has now been Chef Manager for three years. It is a big operation – around 1,400 secondary students and a team of 10 – but the routine works for family life as well as career.
“The hours work perfectly,” he says. “My kids are at secondary school, so it fits with them finishing school, and my wife finishes at 4.30pm. We get evenings together.”
That balance matters. In restaurants, he says, getting to the top can feel like the be-all and end-all. School catering has given him something just as valuable: a career he can be proud of and a family life he can be present for.
Finding his competitive spark
Ben first heard about SCOTY three years ago. Richard, another chef from the same trust, had been runner-up the year before Ben entered, and their conversations planted the seed. In a school environment, where menus are centralised across five comprehensives and budgets are tight, Ben saw the competition as a chance to stretch himself creatively.
The first time around, he admits he went in “a little bit blindly”. The paperwork felt daunting, and he was not quite sure what the judges would be looking for. With support from Jo Watson and Luca Thomas, he got his head down, focused on the entry and made it through to the regional heat in Barnsley.
There, the nerves met something better: camaraderie. Two chefs from his trust, three from the Pele Trust and a group of supportive judges helped make the experience feel encouraging rather than intimidating. Ben won the regional, much to his own surprise, and went on to the national final.
The final was bigger, louder and more intense — “SCOTY ramped up”, as Ben puts it — but it was also friendly. Having already met Malachy, who received a wild card and went on to place third, helped settle the nerves. Ben finished second, but perhaps more importantly, he came away hooked. Even without a placing, he says, it would have been worth it for the experience alone.
It also taught him what mattered. The competition was not simply about showing off. It was about understanding the brief, the judges and, crucially, the children who would actually eat the food — while adapting ideas to a surprisingly tight cooking space.
Coming back to win
When Ben returned for SCOTY 2026, he was better prepared. The process was familiar, the brief was clearer and the experience of the previous year gave him a steadier footing. There was a different kind of pressure too: as last year’s runner-up, he wanted to improve on second place.
The regional heat at Leeds College brought together chefs from the Northeast, Scotland and Yorkshire. Ben won the Northeast and Scotland regional, while his colleague Richard earned a wildcard place.
On the day of the final, Ben did not feel like a winner in waiting. Quite the opposite. During the cook-off, timings started to slip and he felt things go slightly awry. He steadied himself, pulled it back together and delivered, but he still walked away thinking about the parts he was not happy with. Talking to the eventual runner-up afterwards, he realised they were both doing the same thing: picking holes in their own work.
“I definitely didn’t think I’d won,” he says. At the awards dinner, third place was announced, then second, and Ben still was not sure. Then his name was called. “I was in a bit of shock – and then over the moon.” His first call after coming off stage was to his wife. Then, finally, he celebrated.
Life after the announcement
The reaction was immediate. On the way home, senior leaders from the trust rang to congratulate him, and the news was shared across the trust site. Ben’s £1,000 prize has already proved practical too: with the cost of family life over the summer, it has helped reduce the need for extra agency work.
There is also the small matter of a trip to Venice with UNOX – somewhere Ben has never been before – and an array of activities, events and award ceremonies to attend.
Keeping perspective
Career-wise, Ben is thoughtful rather than hurried. St Leonard’s has had an unusual few years: the school was dramatically affected by RAAC, and several buildings had to be demolished and rebuilt. For a long stretch, the catering team worked from mobile kitchens feeding the students at a temporary site. The proper kitchen only reopened in April, so Ben is keen to experience a full year with the site fully up and running before looking at his next step.
He is open to opportunities, including development and perhaps side projects, but his priorities are clear. While his children are young, time with them matters. “There’s something to be said for having twelve weeks of the year off,” he says. “From a work-life balance perspective, it recalibrates what’s important.”
The people behind the chef
Ben is quick to credit the people who shaped him, from Peter Barker at the farm shop, who deepened his technical skills, to Martyn Fletcher at Lumley Castle, and Kim Martindale at the Poachers, who taught him speed, precision and kitchen routine.
Luca Tomassetti has been a key influence, helping Ben make the leap into school catering after having done the role himself.
His message to other school chefs
His advice to other school chefs is simple: enter. The competition is supportive, the experience is valuable whatever the result, and people are generous with help. “Don’t be scared to ask for advice,” he says.
For Ben, SCOTY has been both a creative spark and a confidence boost. From bar work to hotel kitchens, farm shop lunches to mobile school kitchens, his story comes back to the same thing: good food, good people and the buzz of a service that comes together.
Melanie Johnstone: confidence, opportunity and the power of recognition
The Worshipful Company of Cooks also supports The School Food People Apprentice/Trainee Award, which this year went to Melanie Johnstone of Impact Food Group. She was recognised for transforming teams across multiple schools, improving client satisfaction and helping drive average sales growth of 41% compared with the previous caterer.
What’s Cooking spoke to Melanie about the award, the apprenticeship that helped her grow in confidence, and the family inspiration behind her career in food.
Melanie’s love of food started at home in Scotland, where both her mum and grandmother were chefs. Watching them cook — and sometimes going into work with her mum — sparked an ambition that endured.
After training at Moray College in Elgin, where she gained chef and hospitality management qualifications, Melanie began building a career that would eventually lead her into school food.
Her route was not straightforward. After struggling to find a chef role in Scotland, she worked in a shortbread factory before moving to Oxfordshire as a trainee assistant hotel manager. When the hotel chef was away, Melanie stepped in to run the kitchen — confirming that cheffing was where she wanted to be.
Roles in contract catering and then schools followed, including around nine years with Brookwood Partnership. Today, Melanie works for Cucina, part of Impact Food Group, as group executive chef across Bullers Wood School for Girls, Bullers Wood School for Boys and Chislehurst School for Girls, supporting each site’s chef manager and wider team. She says she has found strong support for professional development, competitions and new opportunities.
Finding confidence through apprenticeship
When Impact Food Group’s communications manager Adam said he had nominated her for the School Food People Apprenticeship Award, Melanie was surprised. Having spent years in the industry, she had not immediately thought of herself as an apprentice.
But the award recognises learners at every stage of their career. Since June last year, Melanie has been completing an operations manager apprenticeship with Learn More, building skills and confidence alongside her day-to-day role. Adam recognised both her commitment to her own learning and the support she gives others on site who are also completing apprenticeships.
“Doing the apprenticeship has given me more confidence in my abilities and in my skills to help others,” she says. “Being nominated was a surprise; winning was even more so.”
A night to remember
Melanie had already enjoyed a memorable SCOTY conference, winning bronze for her chutney in the preserve category and best in class for her brownie in the traybake category, before the Apprenticeship Award was announced during the evening dinner.
She remembers feeling proud, privileged and nervous as she waited in front of the stage. Hearing her name called was “all a bit of a blur”, and the achievement only began to sink in once she returned to her table.
Growing through new opportunities
Alongside the trophy, Melanie received a £500 prize, which she has put aside towards a new bathroom. More importantly, the apprenticeship has stretched her beyond the kitchen. One Trust Day event tested her planning, problem-solving and cost-management skills when extreme heat forced its cancellation at short notice.
Those experiences have strengthened her confidence and broadened her development, while helping her continue to support the schools and teams she works with every day.
Looking ahead
Melanie is not looking to move on from the job she loves. Instead, the apprenticeship is helping her prepare for the future and explore how she might one day support operations managers more closely, while continuing to add value in her current role.
Inspiration and advice
Her biggest influence remains her mum, who could cook instinctively without relying on recipes. Today, Melanie finds inspiration in good teams, supportive companies and helping others develop skills they did not think they could master.
Her advice is simple: nominate someone. Whether they win or not, being recognised for hard work is a proud and powerful moment.
Melanie is quick to credit Impact Food Group and Learn More for creating opportunities that have helped her develop, compete and grow in confidence — proof that professional development can be energising at any stage of a career.
A wider story of school food
The celebration sat within a wider story too. Alongside the competition, the School Food Exhibition joined The School Food People’s Show and Forum in Birmingham to mark 120 years of free school meals. Usually based at the Food Museum in Stowmarket, the exhibition traced the history and future of school food through memories, displays and recreated meals from the 1950s to today — from spam fritters, pink custard and semolina to Turkey Twizzlers and current debates on health, nutrition and policy.
With more than 54 billion school meals served since 1906, the exhibition was a reminder of the scale and social importance of school catering. Developed with young people through workshops with academics, scientists and museum professionals, it also pointed towards the next chapter: a forthcoming review of the School Food Standards and a renewed opportunity to shape meals that are healthy, sustainable and enjoyed by pupils.
