A TRIP to a top hotel turned out to be a recipe for success for young boys and girls.Pupils in year four at Orford primary school, near Woodbridge, were so excited at the prospect of visiting the Crown and Castle Hotel that they gave up their swimming session at Leiston pool for the opportunity to learn more about cooking.

A TRIP to a top hotel turned out to be a recipe for success for young boys and girls.

Pupils in year four at Orford primary school, near Woodbridge, were so excited at the prospect of visiting the Crown and Castle Hotel that they gave up their swimming session at Leiston pool for the opportunity to learn more about cooking.

The children have been finding out about food eaten in different countries and they visited the village shop in Orford to look for produce from abroad.

They discovered pasta and pasta sauces and their teacher Mary Baker decided to write to the hotel in Orford to ask if the pupils could be shown how to make pasta.

The hotel is owned by Ruth and David Watson and Mrs Watson, a cookery author, told the school the cooks did not make their own pasta – but they could divulge the secrets of their pasta sauces.

A group of 21 children was taken to the hotel this weekwhere they were greeted by Mrs Watson. A kitchen was set up in the restaurant where one of the chefs prepared sauces in front of the children.

Bolognaise, tomato and creamy sauces were cooked – and then the children sat down to an early lunch to eat different types of pasta with the sauces, followed by ice cream.

Mrs Baker said: ''Lunch in the restaurant was quite an exciting experience for them. The children spent about two hours at the hotel and their visit coincided with camera crews who were filming the launch of Ruth's Fat Girl Slim book.

''We were then invited to return in the autumn – not the summer because the hotel is too busy – and we will probably take another group and there will be other teachers who would like to go as well.''

The family-run hotel was voted National Inn of the Year 2003 in the prestigious Les Routiers awards.

After the outing the children joined the rest of the school in attending a presentation to mark the retirement of Howard Davies as head teacher at Orford. Ken Marrable is acting head.

richard.smith@eadt.co.uk