Talented trio serves up success

A team of talented hospitality and catering students from the South Eastern Regional College (SERC) has won the prestigious Brakes Student Chef Team Challenge. Team members Jamie Rea, Euan Sibbald and Andrew Cassling recently travelled to the Southern Regional College to participate in the live cook-off event.

The team will now progress to the live competition final, held as part of Hotel Olympia 2014 in April, where they will have the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime five-day work experience placement, along with an invitation to join and assist the Craft Guild of Chefs culinary team at the Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg.

The challenge to the teams at the event was to create their menu within a budget. They had to develop their three-course, four-cover menu using up to £8-worth of ingredients per cover.

The theme of this year’s competition was ‘back to basics’ with teams having to present a menu that embraces the modern trend for clean, well-proportioned and precisely executed cuisine. Under the watchful eye of the judges students had to demonstrate great technique and were marked on all aspects of food preparation including flavours and textures, hygiene, use of local produce and presentation.

SERC tutor and team mentor Ruth Doherty, said afterwards: “The students represented themselves and the college extremely well. The high level of technique showcased was excellent and was commented upon by the competition judges. The Brakes Student Chef Team Challenge is a great opportunity for student’s to showcase their skills developed while studying at SERC and their ability to work in the unique, pressurised environment of a professional kitchen. This year we were up against some high calibre students so to win is an incredible achievement.”

Pictured above are Jamie Rea, Euan Sibbald and Andrew Cassling are pictured with their winners’ certificate.