Westminster Kingsway College chef students Jack Hone and James O’Keeffe have won the finals of the ‘Future Stars of Gastronomy’ competition organised by the Academy of Food & Wine.
The 2nd year students had to demonstrate both culinary techniques and front of house service skills during the competition which involved students from colleges and universities across the UK. Their dishes had to include Discover the Origin PDO ingredients parma ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and must be accompanied by a burgundy, port or wine from the Douro Valley, also part of the Discover the Origin campaign.
The panel of judges were able to quiz the student teams on their choice of ingredients, details of how they worked together to develop their dishes.
The Westminster Kingsway College students were mentored by Chef Lecturer Norman Fu and Hospitality Food & Beverage Lecturer Johanna Wimmer. The winning College team received a fantastic prize of an Academy of Food & Wine training bursary of £3,000 together with a personal prize of a 10-day culinary research trip, courtesy of Discover the Origin, to gain an insight and understanding into the history and provenance behind the products of the PDO campaign.
Chef Lecturer Norman Fu said: “It was really fantastic to be awarded the first prize in the Future Stars of Gastronomy competition. It really shows the level of training and mentorship that we put into the students at Westminster Kingsway College in order to be ready for professional level competitions and for their life in the hospitality industry.”
In a very closely fought student competition, the joint second prize went to Thames Valley University’s student chef Tom Allerton and student sommelier Gareth Pugh and University College of Birmingham’s student chef Enming Liang and student sommelier Adam Finney.
The other institutions taking part were: Preston College, Walsall College of Arts & Technology and West Suffolk College.
The winners of the Academy of Food & Wine’s 2010 Gastronomy Team of the Year from the hospitality industry were also announced as Sommelier Laurent Richet and chef de partie Neil Cooper from Hotel TerraVina in Hampshire.
The Gastronomy Team of the Year and Future Stars of Gastronomy competitions, now in their second year, are designed to highlight the importance of a good working relationship between kitchen and front-of-house staff and to encourage teamwork and innovation between the disciplines.