Ayr College wins Brakes student team chef challenge

Overcoming stiff competition from Westminster Kingsway, Shrewsbury, Sheffield and Loughborough Colleges, the Ayr students were judged best in class for their gold standard menu and skills at a live cook-off held at ScotHot on 4 March. Held in association with Craft Guild of Chefs, the challenge is the country's largest student cooking competition. Designed to raise awareness and instil passion for British food and cooking, it's targeted at teams of student chefs working towards their professional NVQ qualification in catering and is an opportunity for them to showcase their culinary skills before embarking on their first professional job. Coached by Ayr College's curriculum leader Norman Robertson and William Ferguson, curriculum manager - hospitality, team members – Stuart Ritchie, Alan Fraser and Nicola McDonald - prepared and cooked three courses for four in just one hour and 45 minutes. Serving up boudin of quail with Stornoway black pudding, potato crusted supreme of North Sea halibut and warm raspberry soufflé with apple tarte tatin; the trio impressed professional judges Chris Basten from the Craft Guild of Chefs and Ian MacDonald and Ralph Porciani from the Federation of Chefs Scotland. Winning an exclusive five day work placement with Chris Basten, executive chef at London's County Hall, the Ayr College students also each received a Global knife set. James Armitage marketing director at Brakes said: "The final demonstrated that the standard of the industry's up and coming chefs just keeps improving. Congratulations to everyone who took part, all the finalists and of course to Ayr College." Judge and competition manager at the Craft Guild of Chefs, Chris Basten said: "The standard was extremely high and the judges had a hard task choosing just one winner with several teams delivering gold standard level cooking. Best in class on the day, Ayr worked well together as a team and excelled in serving up three first rate dishes. All of the teams should be proud of their achievements in reaching the final – they along with the Ayr students look set to be stars of tomorrow." The team's delighted mentor William Ferguson commented: "This has always been seen as the best pure cooking competition for colleges and is further strengthened by the Craft Guild of Chefs' support. Our record in the competition is exceptional and we're so proud of our new team who are keeping the flag flying high."