Lyme Regis students assist in creating a sumptuous banquet at the Natural History Museum

Three aspiring young chefs from Lyme’s Woodroffe School helped to create a ‘fossil feast’ at the Natural History Museum.

The students underwent an apprentice-style competition to win the opportunity to work with Moving Venue’s chefs on the sumptuous banquet, staged to raise funds for science projects in their home town.

The event was hosted by the Lyme Regis Development Trust to raise awareness of, and funds for, the Jurassic Coast Studies Centre.

This is a haven for field-based learning to engage young people in science on one of England’s only natural World Heritage Sites.

The three young apprentices - Lucy Pearson, Emma Page and Holly Weare - were selected by teachers after submitting video applications and proving their skills in the kitchen, including chopping onions and slicing carrots Julienne. They travelled to London to assist in the Moving Venue kitchens in the lead up to the event as well as working in the museum on the night.

Some 50 specially invited guests were treated to an exclusive reception in the museum’s central hall before taking their seats for the intimate dinner in Waterhouse Way.

Although an impressive assortment of fossils already decorate the gallery’s walls, guests were able to get up close and personal as genuine fossils from the Jurassic Coast were the centre decoration on each dining table.

In addition to these local specimens, all ingredients on the menu had been sourced sustainably from the Jurassic Coast region to demonstrate its untapped potential.

Richard Beggs, managing director of Moving Venue said: “Having grown up on the Jurassic Coast, the study centre that aspires to engage with local young people is very close to my heart. We always have apprentice chefs learning the ropes in our kitchens and we were delighted to be able to extend this to the students from Lyme Regis for this very special event.”

The students, who were accompanied by teachers Julie Kabia and Dot Wood, were allowed to participate fully in plating up the meals, working alongside the chefs to create the banquet.