Eastleigh College recently sent seven Hospitality and Catering students to the annual Wessex Salon Culinaire Competition hosted at Central Bedfordshire College in Dunstable, picking up a staggering 17 awards.

The Wessex Salon Culinaire is one of the UK’s largest live culinary competitions, and is held in association with The Craft Guild of Chefs and World Skills UK. The competition was split into five categories: Live Hot, Live Cold, Restaurant, Display and Wessex Bake Off. In each category, students were instructed to create a particular dish or demonstrate a skill within a time frame.

Eastleigh College students competed against industry professionals and other colleges in several categories, including the Wessex Bake Off which involved creating novelty cakes, floral arrangements and afternoon tea pastries.

The day was a massive success, with every student coming away with an award from a Certificate of Merit to a Gold award. This was the first time Level 1 Hospitality and Catering student Cameron Ackers had competed at the Wessex Salon Culinaire, and he was pleased to have received a Silver award for both his Fish Fileting and Bakery skills.

He said, “The competition was enjoyable, and really well organised. It’s was useful to see what other chefs were doing and learn from them. I’d like to compete again next year in the same categories to see how I’ve improved.”

Overall this was a fantastic opportunity for the Catering & Hospitality students to take part in an industry-led event, improve their culinary skills, and more importantly be rewarded for their hard work and determination.

The full list of awards for Eastleigh College is as follows:

Certificate of Merit

Sophie Padwick

Jack Bryant

Ashesh Purja

Bronze

Shannon Foreman

Katie Woodford

Talya Sewell

Silver

Talya Sewell

Donovan Malone

Ashesh Purja

Cameron Ackers

Gold

Donovan Malone