She beat off 11 other finalists to win the inaugural Tabasco Student Street Food Challenge and the top prize of a trip to the home of Tabasco – Avery Island in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Her four-day trip will cover everything there is to know about the hot pepper sauce through guided factory tours that highlight the history of the sauce and the processes used to make it, tastings and an interesting swamp ride.
The competition held at the University of West London was organised by AB World Foods in association with the Craft Guild of Chefs. It was open to student chefs of all ages working in the UK, who had to prepare their own ‘street food’ inspired dish in 90 minutes using any Tabasco sauce variant.
Edwards’ dish of smoked chipotle and oyster sauce, marinated pork fillet, sweet potato brown butter mash, som tam with tomatillo, lime and coriander salsa ticked all the boxes for being practical to prepare in a foodservice kitchen using easily sourced ingredients, and being served in handy take out boxes.
The judges included Tabasco European business development chef Gary Evans, AB World Foods development chef Craig Miles, Westminster Kingsway College chef lecturer Stefan Greubel, Brooklands Hotel executive chef Nick Sinclair, Craft Guild CEO Martin Bates and Craft Guild vice president Steve Munkley.
“The creative side of the young chefs really came out,” said Munkley. “The challenge was for them to envisage what street food they would like to see and they impressed us with the way they delivered the food and particularly the packaging.
“From the moment Katie got into the kitchen her head was down and she created everything from scratch showing she had thought carefully about it. Everything worked well and balanced well.”
Evans added: “The day was a huge success; the competitors really enjoyed the experience and there was an impressive display of unique and interesting street food dishes, which all incorporated Tabasco very well.”
The finalists were:
Vanessa Allinson, Darlington College
Dharumendra Chauhan, South & City College Birmingham
Andrew Collis, University of Derby
Katherine Edwards, South Downs College
Leeann Marie Gibbons, Grimsby Institute of Further & Higher Education
Michael Harrison, Liverpool Community College
Judith Manderioli, University of West London
Mike Nyotu, University of West London
Anthony Okerse, University of Derby
Josh Riley, Sodexo-Unilever
Matthew Shea, Westminster Kingsway College
Joo Theng Yap, University of West London