Pupils at Stamford Welland Academy join Jamie Oliver’s cookery class in attempt to beat 10-year Guinness World Record

A world-famous chef enlisted about 15,000 helpers in a bid to break the world record for the largest cookery class – and schoolpupils from Stamford joined the challenge.

Twenty pupils from StamfordWelland Academy donned their aprons on Tuesday (July 1) morning and joined forces with more than 600 schools and venues across the country to help Jamie Oliver attempt to break the Guinness World Record.

The title, currently held by the Partnership for Health in Poland since 2015, was challenged by Jamie as he attempted to host the largest online cookery class.

Kicking off at 11am, the pupils joined a cooking class via Zoom and had 90 minutes to make homemade pasta with a no-cook tomato sauce.

They were guided by Dimo Cerrone, Jamie’s head chef at his cookery school – but not before a cameo from the big man himself.

Charlotte Boyd, Stamford Welland Academy’s food technology teacher, supervised the challenge.

She said: “I thought this was good opportunity for students to take part in something meaningful and give the opportunity to learn new skills.

“We do teach the kids here how to make pasta from scratch and they have quite good skills level, but to be involved in a world record is quite an achievement.

“I think the students were exceptional. They have good resilience and aspiration.”

To count as an entry, each cookery class needed to have 15 participants, one witness and one steward.

One pupil, Evie Booker, 14, said after the challenge: “It was very exciting.

“I wanted to learn how to make pasta – and although I’m not the biggest fan of tomatoes, I would make this dish at home again.

“It would be very cool if we helped to break the record.”

Another pupil, Justin, who also enjoys making pasta dishes at home, said: “It was very exciting to be part of something.

Oscar Goddard, aged 14, said his favourite part was making the sauce.

“I make tomato pasta at home quite a lot but I don’t make it like this so it was a nice experience trying something new,” he added.

The Stamford school is believed to be the only one in Lincolnshire to have taken part in the record-breaking effort.

The school hopes to find out soon whether it has been successful in breaking the record.

If verified, this will be Jamie’s second Guinness World Record.

In 2013, Jamie set a record by chopping 10 raw chillies in 30 seconds.