Knorr Professional’s Scottish Student Chef of the Year competition is now in its second year and aims to discover and celebrate the next generation of young Scottish chefs.
Nahui impressed the judges with her main dish of monkfish tail, smoked pork rind, Parmentier potato, vegetable noodles, fennel broad bean puree, lumpfish caviar and champagne sauce. She followed this with a passion fruit and mango entremet dessert with mango passion fruit gel and black pepper tuille.
These dishes landed Nahui, her assistant Anastasiia Severina and their college lecturer the coveted prize of an all-expenses paid educational food trip to Italy. On her win, Nahui was delighted with the dishes she created and relieved that her hard work paid off.
The Scottish Student Chef of the Year competition took place on Wednesday 26th March at the City of Glasgow College. The students competed in teams of two, each consisting of a head chef and an assistant, completing a skills test and delivering a two-course meal, based on this year’s competition theme of wellbeing and the powerful connection between nutrition and health.
Gary Maclean, competition ambassador and judge, commented: “The standard of cooking in this year’s competition truly blew me away. Our theme was ‘Feel Good Food,’ and what impressed me most was how the students not only embraced the concept but also poured their passion into their dishes.
“The most important thing for me was that they felt proud of what they presented, and you could see that in every plate. The creativity, skill, and heart they put into their cooking were beyond exceptional."
In addition to the overall competition winner Eathan Buchanan from Ayrshire College was celebrated as winning assistant chef, completing two skills tests - vegetable cuts and filleting fish.
The other chef finalists were:
- Ross Gourlay, 20 - City of Glasgow (runner-up)
- Graham Watson, 35 - Ayrshire
- Louise Smith, 40 - Ayrshire
- Lewis MacLeod, 26 - UHI, Argyll
The assistant chefs in the competition were:
- Eathan Buchanan, 21 - Ayrshire (winner)
- Evie Edgington, 19 - UHI, Argyll
- Jamie Robb, 17 - City of Glasgow
- Taylor Carrol, 18 - Ayrshire
- Anastasiia Severina - Forth Valley