Students Qualify for National Seafood Chef of the Year Grand Final

A pair of budding chefs from Coleg Llandrillo have qualified for the grand final of one of the UK’s most prestigious cooking competitions.

Foundation Degree (FdA) Culinary Arts students Jay Rees, from Chester and Pippa Taylor, from Bodelwyddan, beat off fierce competition from teams from across the UK in the Western heat to qualify for the UK final of the ‘National Seafood Chef of the Year 2023’ competition in the summer.

The Coleg Llandrillo duo will now compete at the Grand Final at the ‘Grimsby Institute’ on Friday, 9th June, where they will cook a three-course menu which will include an innovation test. The test will challenge the finalists with a surprise recipe which requires them to produce an intermediate course using a specified list of ingredients.

Jay and Pippa earned their place in the final by preparing a three-course menu consisting of sustainably-sourced smoked haddock, langoustines, and seabass.

Pippa said,

“We’re really proud to have made it through to the national finals – our college lecturers have been a great support to us and we’re really grateful to them for helping us achieve such fantastic results!”

“We’d also like to say a special thank you to Abergele-based ‘Fresh and Tasty Microgreens’, who supplied all of the fresh microgreens for our dishes”.

Michael Evans, Hospitality and Catering lecturer at Coleg Llandrillo, said,

“Well done to Jay and Pippa for this tremendous achievement – they performed brilliantly as a team on the day. We wish them all the best for the final”.

For more information on our Hospitality and Catering courses, please click here.