Student to present winning recipe

Posted 12 October 2012

A Harper Adams student with a passion for Welsh lamb is travelling to London later this month to present her recipe idea to a leading supermarket.

Laura Bowyer, from Usk in Gwent, took part in the Sainsbury’s Welsh Lamb Promotion competition, held in conjunction with Dunbia.

The task was to design a new recipe for Welsh lamb being sold through the Wales YFC lamb initiative - where YFC members supply Sainsbury’s stores with quality meat.

Entries needed to meet a budget of £10 and members were asked to promote lamb as an affordable and easy solution for a meal, whatever the occasion.

Laura, who is studying BSc (Hons) Agri-Business at the University College, said: “I first entered the competition at county level with my best friend, Abbie Williams, through Gwent YFC.

“Our recipe had to consider the target customer, meal occasion, relevance to Sainsbury’s values and cooking method, among other elements.

“We chose to target young people and the ‘food on the go’ culture, as well as sourcing local ingredients.

“We were lucky to win so then progressed to the next stage – attending a development day at Food Centre Wales in Ceredigion, before cooking and presenting the recipe at the Royal Welsh Show.”

Laura and Abbie’s recipe of Welsh lamb and Abergavenny goat's cheese tart was up against seven other ideas and was judged by Alice Swift of Sainsbury’s and Alison Jones of Dunbia.

The pair won the competition and have since been invited on an all-expenses paid trip to London to cook the tart at Sainsbury’s new product development kitchen at their store support centre in Holborn. 

19-year-old Laura, added: “I’m pleased to have won the competition, it should be a good opportunity.

“I feel proud to be championing Welsh lamb.”

Laura’s family farms a beef, sheep and arable unit near Usk. She is currently in her second year of studies at Harper Adams in Shropshire and is the Treasurer of Welsh student society, Harper Cymru and Chairman of the Harper Adams Forum.