Laura Hogger and Antonia Morosi, who studied at London’s Westminster Kingsway College, and Kathryn Bash from the Colchester Institute won the title after a cook off involving six catering colleges in May.
The competition challenged student chefs to create a starter and main course dish using British turkey thigh and breast meat respectively, and part of their prize included the experience of cooking their dishes with The Savoy’s executive sous chef Michael Stenekes at the annual British Turkey Awards ceremony.
The winners were assisted in the kitchen by one of the runners up in the competition, Chris Windle from Sheffield College.
More than 240 guests from the turkey industry, foodservice and retail sectors enjoyed Hogger and Morosi’s starter of Thai style turkey kofta, turkey crackling, green papaya salad, honey yogurt and deep fried tortellini. The main was Bash’s stuffed and rolled turkey breast served with a honey parsnip purée and a turkey quail scotch egg. The students collected their trophies after the dinner.
Nicola Rye, chair of British Turkey’s publicity and marketing committee, said: “Both courses really showed how inventive you can be with turkey – and as these are the chefs of tomorrow, we hope that they will inspire others to include turkey on their menus all year round – not just for carveries and Christmas.”
The Best Catering Product category winner was Lincs Turkeys Lincolnshire free range thigh roll. Judges said it had a “wow factor flavour” that would make diners happy and that “the dark meat was very flavoursome and the versatility of the joint would appeal to caterers”.
Three runners up in the Best Catering category were UK Foodhall’s cooked sliced turkey breast in stock, Bernard Matthews Foodservice roast turkey breast chunks and Adlington Arden Forest cooked sliced oak smoked turkey.
Winners of the 10 retail and catering categories were announced from 79 entries, ranging from tomato and mozzarella topped escalopes, a turkey Wellington and chilli turkey burgers to 14 different whole roasted turkeys.
The awards were hosted by former Olympic rowing champion Sir Matthew Pinsent and presented by Rye and ex London Wasps rugby star Pete Scrivener. The evening also raised more than £13,000 for the children’s medical charity SPARKS and Dravet Syndrome UK.