Catering students from Havant & South Downs College have made the semi-final heats for the Country Range Student Chef Challenge 2019.
James Cardy, Zac Hughes and Kieron Parslow impressed the judges in the first round and have now cooked their way into the semi-finals, alongside 15 other competitors from across the country.
The students will now face the even tougher heats, taking place on 1 February, where they will have to reproduce their menus under competition conditions and in the presence of the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Chairman of Judges Chris Basten.
Student James Cardy spoke about the competition, saying: “It’s definitely a bit harder on everyone because it’s a group effort, we all have our own dishes to work on, but we also need to learn each other’s.
“I did the Rotary competition last year and I learnt a lot from that, it’s another level from a normal lesson because of the stress and pressure. It’s just learning to try and keep calm throughout it all.”
Zac said: “We all had to come up with our own dish ideas with the individual briefs we had to follow. For instance, for mine I am doing a classic dessert with a modern twist.
“We’re practicing a lot at the moment before we go up to Leicestershire where we will have 90 minutes to cook all of our dishes. I know when I get stuck in I’ll be fine, it’s just the anticipation of it now.
“I was proud when we found out we were going through, but then an instant hit of oh, this is serious now!”
Run in collaboration with the Craft Guild of Chefs, the competition is celebrating its 25th anniversary and this year the theme focuses on the core skills and techniques students learn on a second-year professional cookery course.
The challenge requires teams of three students to plan, prepare and execute a three-course, four-cover menu in just 90 minutes and must include an Asian-themed seabass starter, a main duck dish and a dessert containing at least 30% of Country Range Chocolate Drops.
Chris Basten, the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Chairman of Judges, said: “The standard of entries this year once again didn’t fail to disappoint and it’s a shame we can’t send them all through to the semi-finals as I’d love to try some of the dishes which didn’t make it.
“That said, the successful students who did make it thoroughly deserve their places and have shown real creativity and skill in their menus. I can’t wait to see how they prepare the dishes and more importantly how they taste.”
The long-running Country Range Student Chef Challenge provides full-time hospitality and catering college students with the perfect platform to improve cooking skills, knowledge and technique, while developing real life experience under intense pressure and competition situations.
The victorious teams from the semi-final heats will compete at the grand finale, which will take place on the 13 March 2019 in the Live Theatre of ScotHot – Scotland’s largest hospitality and tourism show.
The prize for the winning team for this special anniversary year is a one day work experience placement at a Michelin-starred restaurant, as well as being taken on foodie tour of London which includes a guided tour of the capital’s famous Billingsgate Market where they will be taught fish filleting skills by the resident master fishmonger.