Tourism & Hospitality | Sunday 8 March, 2015 1:24 pm |

Taste of Dubai brought a sweet afternoon to year 7 students at Horizon International School, when Emirati baking sensation Bader Al Awadhi took over the school’s Food Technology class, to lead an exciting frosting tips and techniques workshop for the pupils.

The hour-long workshop saw Chef Bader teach the students how to make the much loved cake topping, followed by him sharing his own culinary secrets with the class on the art of frosting. The year 7 students then had the chance to pick up the piping bags and try out the techniques, as they iced their own cakes.

The master baker rounded-off the session by giving an inspiring speech, encouraging the young students to follow their dreams and not to let age hold you back. Something the successful 19-year-old chef knows a bit about himself.

“It was a pleasure for me to come into the school and takeover the cookery class,” said Chef Bader Al Awadhi. “It was great to see the students participating so positively in the session and how keen they were to demonstrate their frosting techniques. They all seemed to pick it up very quickly, I was impressed! My passion for cooking started when I was really young, so it is great to be able to come into the school and hopefully help to inspire the students to pursue their dreams.”

Horizon International School, Umm Sheif is an age 3 - 18 school that offers Early Years Foundation Study curriculum, in conjunction with the English National Curriculum for Primary and Secondary students. The school currently provides students in years 7 - 9 modules of Food Technology classes and is set to extend this to GCSE level, once the cookery facilities at the school have been refurbished over the summer. The GCSE classes will be made available to pupils going into year 10 in September this year.

“We always look to provide engaging and interactive learning experiences that we feel the students will benefit from,” said Head of Secondary Cathy Wilson. “Having Chef Bader come into the school and lead a workshop gave pupils first-hand insight into some important basic cookery disciplines, as well as learning some creative techniques that they can look to replicate when baking at home.”

Chef Bader is one of a number of celebrity chefs taking part in Taste of Dubai this year. The line-up includes: Master of street food Andy Bates, along with Tim Anderson, Atul Kochhar, Jean-Christophe Novelli, Jose Pizarro and Dhruv Baker. All chefs will take part in live demonstrations and book signing sessions at the festival.

Taste of Dubai will showcase some of the best food offerings in the city, taking place at Dubai Media City Amphitheatre from Thursday 12 to Saturday 14 March 2015. The festival will run from 4 – 12pm on Thursday, 12pm – 12am on Friday and 12pm – 11pm on Saturday.