The BBC has joined Loughborough College chefs at their final preparations for the Zest Quest Asia national showdown.
Hospitality and Catering students Grace McGreal, Brannon Underwood and Chandni Khatri are heading to London to join five finalist teams for a live cook off at Hilton’s signature restaurant at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, Mr Todwala’s Kitchen . After a rigorous selection process, the trio were chosen from hundreds of young chefs across the country in the competition founded by Cyrus and Pervin Todiwala, in collaboration with the Master Chefs of Great Britain.
BBC Radio Leicester’s Jimmy Carpenter brought along Sam Hagger, who runs The Beautiful Pubs Collective, to watch the students in action in Loughborough College’s training kitchen and to enjoy the Asian menu they have created, inspired by Gujarati cooking and using sustainable British ingredients, which is taking them to the 2020 finals.
Darren Creed, chef lecturer and head of hospitality and catering at the College, explained to breakfast show presenter Jimmy how the competition is driven by superstar chef Cyrus Todiwala’s passion for authentic Asian cuisine.
After completing the dishes against the clock, the students each served up the course they had prepared – Brannon a Nargisi Arancini of Paneer and Beetroot starter, Grace a roasted Hake fillet with Malabar curry sauce, spiced spinach, onion biriyani and a coriander and pomegranate raita and Chandni a saffron panna cotta dessert with Nankhati crumb, pistachio meringue and lemon and ginger sorbet.
Chandni described to Jimmy how she changed direction after completing undergraduate and Masters degrees in Psychology - launching her own cake business and now studying patisserie with Loughborough College to support her ambition to expand the business. Brannon has big plans to have three or four restaurants of his own while Grace will be moving on to a Hospitality Management degree with hopes to also one day own her own restaurants.
Listen to Darren, Grace, Brannon and Chandni on BBC radio 1:44:10 into the show here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07zmc8m
Pictured: (from left) Sam Hagger, Brannon Underwood, Grace McGreal, Chandni Khatri, Darren Creed and BBC radio’s Jimmy Carpenter