PUPILS from an East Renfrewshire school cooked up a storm in the LinguaChef competition finals.

The competition was a partnership project from Scotland’s National Centre for Languages (SCILT) and City of Glasgow College, bringing together languages and food, challenging primary and secondary school pupils to create an international dish from a country whose language they are learning in school, or which is spoken at home.

And Ilya Gladkikh, Lilian Noufal and Sam Wells from Mearns Castle High School were placed as finalists in the secondary category that put their culinary and language skills put to the test.

Finalists from each of the age categories, P1-P4, P5-P7 and secondary, were selected to attend the Grand Final on Friday, June 14, where they prepared, cooked and presented their dish to professional chefs and judges.

Fhiona Mackay, director of SCILT, said: “Food is a fundamental part of any culture and is inextricably linked with language. 

“Much of the vocabulary used in English to describe food originates in other parts of the world.

“Words from other languages, such as chef, cuisine, pizza, tapas, paella and frankfurter are all commonplace and English speakers feel particularly comfortable with them. 

“It is therefore very fitting to see our children and young people exploring culture and deepening their language skills while also developing their understanding of food, its origins an the preparation.

“The competition provides another great example of the cross-sector work going on in the languages community in Scottish schools, colleges and universities.

“We are thrilled to be working with our colleagues from City of Glasgow College in this initiative.”

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