Student chefs turn up the heat at national competition
24/03/2010
Erin Ferrier, Monica Bance and Ellouise Smith, pictured with Lecturer Mark Russell, and their awards.
Three trainee chefs from the College's Crawley campus rose to the challenge of cooking on the big stage, after they attended the Wessex Salon Culinaire, the UK's biggest Young Chef and Waiting Competition for chefs and restaurant service professionals in employment, training or education, which was held at Bournemouth International Centre on 16 and 17 March.
An essential showcase for the industry, the annual Wessex Salon Culinaire features the latest products, services, and culinary innovations, as well as providing delicious tasting opportunities and live demonstrations from top chefs, which this year included Brian Turner CBE, Cyrus Todiwala OBE, Mark Hix and Mitch Tonks. This year, in addition to competitors getting the opportunity to demonstrate their creativity on a visible platform, watched by industry leaders, the two-day event also included the UK WorldSkills final for Cooking, Confectioner/Pastry Chef and Restaurant Services competitions, the winners of which will go on to represent the UK at the WorldSkills International final in London 2011.
Erin Ferrier, Monica Bance and Ellouise Smith, who are all currently studying for their NVQ Level 2 in Professional Cookery at the College, signed up to take part in the National competition just ten days before they were due to compete, which meant the heat was on to perfect their dishes ahead of the day! The contest, which featured over 700 competitors from 45 colleges around the country, saw prizes awarded in a variety of hot and cold live competition classes, including Bakery Skills, Cocktails & Coffee preparation, best Fish Course and best Gourmet Breakfast. Central Sussex College's contestants entered three rounds: the hot live class, where they were required to create a main-course pork dish of their own design, using pork fillet, and including a carbohydrate and vegetable garnish, within 20 minutes and in front of a live audience; the cold live class, where they were given 20 minutes to cut and prepare a 1.5 kilo chicken ready to be sautéd, again, in front of an audience; and the static display round, where they were asked to display a pre-prepared vegetarian main-course.
After a long day, the three students from the College were awarded two merits, two bronze awards, one silver award and one gold, which was presented to Erin Ferrier. Lecturer in Hospitality, Mark Russell, who accompanied the students to the event said "With only two weeks' notice that they were going to enter the competition, for all three students to come away with a medal is fantastic, but to get gold, silver and bronze in a salon class plus a bronze in the World Skills UK competition, with a chance to go to further World Skills events in the future is awesome"
