Chef of the Year at HCT
Students from HCT’s NVQ Level 2 Food Preparation course put their culinary skills to the test at this year’s ‘Chef of the Year’ competition. The competition now awards the Joel Lawrence Memorial Trophy in remembrance of the Level 3 student who sadly died last week. Their challenge was to create a main course and a dessert for under £5 and within a time of ninety minutes. Their efforts were judged by Head Chef, Andy Piriam and Marketing Manager, Hayley Coombes, both from the highly acclaimed Mill Race Restaurant at Walford near Ross on Wye.
The students produced a mouth watering array of imaginative dishes that included; Pork Fillet with Stuffed Cabbage Leaves and Cider Sauce followed by Lemon Possett as well as Neck of Lamb with Sweet Potato followed by Rhubarb and Summer Fruit Crumble. This year’s winner was Ian Davies with his main course of Poached Trout on Crushed New Potatoes with Parmesan and Rocket and a dessert of Lemon Curd Soufflé. On receiving the trophy Ian commented, “I’m really thrilled, I put in a lot of practice at home for this, especially with the soufflé which can be a difficult dish to get right.”
Judge, Andy Piriam was very much impressed by both the overall standard of the dishes and the imagination shown by the students. He commented, “the students had some great ideas, I may just pinch some of them for myself!”
Course Tutor Les Brown commended all of the students and said, “they have put in a tremendous amount of work and also managed to produce some really interesting dishes.”
