A prestigious competition showcasing culinary skills from across the UK has seen Loughborough College awarded 20 prizes - including three silver medals in The Country Range Student Chef Team Challenge and a Hygiene Award.
The College secured sixteen silver and three bronze medals and a merit award to take them to an incredible total of 20 at the International Salon Culinare 2023 competitions, which are regarded as one of the world’s top competitions for chefs and is the UK’s largest and most prestigious programme of culinary competitions.
A total of 11 hospitality and catering students from Level 2, Level 3, and apprenticeships from Loughborough College competed at the Hotel, Restaurant, and Catering (HRC) Show at Excel, London on Tuesday, 21 March 2023, which saw 350 exhibitors and 25,000 industry catering and hospitality professionals in attendance.
Talented chefs Libby Anderson, Jess Howick, and Nathan Russell all won silver awards for the long-running Country Range Student Chef Challenge, which was run in partnership with the Craft Guild of Chefs and battled against five other colleges. The challenge is the ideal platform for students to improve their cooking skills, knowledge, and techniques.
The theme for this year's challenge was 'Around the World.' They had to recreate a three-course, four-cover menu in 90 minutes under the watchful eyes of judges and a live audience at the HRC.
The focus was Mexico for the starter, Africa for the main, and Australia for the dessert. The challenge was designed in line with the NVQ syllabus to assess classical and modern cooking techniques.
Darren Creed, Curriculum Manager, Hospitality and Travel & Chef Lecturer, was judging at the competition and commented, “I’m really proud of the team. We only had a short time to practice this, and they smashed it. They took on board my feedback through the practices and took it away, discussed it and came back with their ideas. It’s been a pleasure to coach the three of them.”
Student Jess Howick commented, "The event was amazing. I loved the team competition; it was my first one, and I will definitely be doing more in the future."
Libby Anderson stated, "This was the best one from all the practices; my dessert worked so well. I loved the competition and I’m so glad I was talked into doing it. It was also my first one, and I now have the bug."
Nathan Russell commented, "Winning the Hygiene award and the silver means a lot. It's great to have on my CV, and I loved every minute."