Three extra students to compete in Mutton Renaissance Chef Challenge

The competition, which launched for the first time last year, challenged student chefs to create recipes that showed Renaissance Mutton has a place on modern menus. The nine chefs are now preparing and practising ahead of the cook-off final on 18 January 2011, where they will serve up their dishes to a panel of expert judges. And as well as the chance to be crowned overall winner and take home the first prize of £500, there are also second and third place prizes of £300 and £200 to be won. Director of the Academy of Culinary Arts, Sara Jayne Stanes OBE, said: "We are delighted with the response to our competition. We received some really innovative recipes featuring a range of different cuts of Renaissance Mutton from students at some of the top catering colleges and universities in England and Wales and it was impossible to choose only six finalists. "We know that many students won't have cooked with mutton before, so it's very encouraging to see that not only are they willing to give it a go, but they have been inspired to produce some wonderfully creative dishes which would work well on any pub or restaurant menu. We wish all the finalists the very best of luck, and look forward to meeting them at the cook-off final." The nine finalists are Aaron Salczynski; Thames Valley University, London, Charlie Wrigley, Coleg Gwent, Wales; Christopher Hurter, Thames Valley University, London; Danny Hoang, Westminster Kingsway College, London; Julien Pickersgill, Thames Valley University, London; Laurence Shone, Preston College, Lancashire; Lucy Bednarczyk, Westminster Kingsway College, London; Marcelo Geraldini, Westminster Kingsway College, London and Tom Durn, University College Birmingham.