University of West London wins Zest Quest Asia 2018
University of West London students have been crowned winners of the Zest Quest Asia 2018 competition.
The result was announced at an awards ceremony last night (12 February) at the Hilton London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 hotel.
Matthew Williams, Matthew Dibb-Fuller, Michael Scholz and mentor Nathan Vasanthan of the University of West London won a seven day trip to Hanoi, Vietnam, including accommodation at the Hilton Hanoi Opera, a street food tour, cocktail demonstration, and full-day organic farming tour.
Six teams of finalists competed in a live cook-off at Mr Todiwala's Kitchen, operated by Cyrus Todiwala, where they prepared a three-course meal for two covers in two hours, demonstrating classical and contemporary Asian cookery skills.
The other teams represented included Colchester Institute, North Hertfordshire College, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield College and Westminster Kingsway College.
The cook-off was followed by a Q&A session with judges, where teams were required to talk about the background of their dishes and why they chose to cook them.
Judges included celebrity chef and author Ching He Huang; hospitality consultant Andrew Bennett; Clive Roberts, former chairman of the Master Chefs of Great Britain; restaurateurs Cyrus and Pervin Todiwala; Steve Munkley, executive head chef of the Royal Garden hotel; and Murray Chapman, founder of A Passion to Inspire.
Bennett said: "The judges were looking for consistency, flavours and textures across the whole dining experience. The University of West London delivered that.
"Their dishes had a lot of components, which sometimes makes the dishes confusing, but on this occasion it worked. There were a lot of interesting flavours and it was a complex menu but they pulled it off."
Awards, including Dish of the Day which was also presented to the University of West London, were presented by chairman of the Master Chefs of Great Britain George McIvor (pictured second from left).
Sheffield Hallam University won both the Chef's Least Food Wasted Award and the Regale's Award for the Best Presented Menu.
Colchester Institute received the Koppert Cress Award for Best Use of Living Ingredient and a three-day trip to the Netherlands, with a masterclass given by a two-Michelin-stared chef, and the opportunity to cook for Koppert Cress' chief executive.
Sheffield College scooped the Tilda Award for the Best Use of Rice.
Zest Quest Asia was launched in 2013 by Todiwala with the Master Chefs of Great Britain. It was founded to address the skills shortage within the £3.5bn Asian food industry in the UK, and to stimulate interest in Asian cookery as a career among British-national student chefs.
Previous winning teams include University College Birmingham, Farnborough College and Milton Keynes College.
Zest Quest Asia launches 2018 competition >>
University College Birmingham team wins Zest Quest Asia 2017 >>
Zest Quest Asia 2018 finalists announced >>
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