Culinary students through to final of cookery event

Culinary students through to final of cookery event

6 March 2013

THREE Downpatrick further education students are through to the final of a national competition.

Roisin McKeown, Ryan Cunningham and Jonathan McQuade, who are studying hospitality and catering at the South Eastern Regional College’s Lower Market Street campus in the town, tasted success at the recent Brakes Student Chef Challenge in Motherwell.

The local trio came second, but have qualified for the national final of the Brakes Student Chef Team Challenge, a leading culinary competition open to teams of full-time hospitality or catering college students.

The challenge provides an opportunity for student chefs to showcase their talents and the Downpatrick trio did exactly that in Motherwell.

The competition is targeted at teams of three and is an opportunity for students to develop “real life” catering skills such as accurate costing, as well as providing a platform to showcase their culinary skills.

The theme of this year’s competition was “world cuisine” which offered the young chefs the opportunity to showcase their talent, celebrate the multi-cultural influences within Britain and embrace the international food that inspires them.

Today’s chef is acutely aware of the need to keep costs down, so the challenge to the teams was to create a three-course menu for four people, using up to £10 worth of ingredients per person.