Catering staff from Royal Holloway, University of London, have scooped four national awards in prestigious industry competitions.
Carol Vallejo, Head Chef at The Hub, the University’s largest dining room, won the Chef award in the annual Cost Sector Catering awards, which celebrates excellence in the food service industry across the private and public sectors. Carol’s commitment to meeting the growing demand for
vegan and vegetarian dishes helped her carry off the trophy.
Meanwhile a team from the dining hall in the Founder’s Building won gold at The University Caterers Organisation (TUCO) awards, in the Cook and Serve Challenge. The winning team were: Sous Chef, Gary Smith, Chef de Partie, Richard Bakaity and Conference and Hospitality Shift Leader Diana Comisescu. Additionally, Diana won the award for Best Service. Another gold award winner in the TUCO competition was second year Media Arts student, Jack Wallis, who carried off the Bar Skills competition. Jack works part-time at a bar in the university.
The team from Founder’s had to cook and serve a three course meal, complete with aperitif and wine to a table of four in a restaurant setting within a 90 minute timescale. This included creating a centre piece for the table, menus, sourcing cutlery, serviettes and crockery. The winning menu was: Tempura battered jackfruit, with pan-fried vegetables, a samphire salad topped with coconut and lemongrass broth, pan fried chicken wrapped in Parma ham, served with quinoa, glacé vegetables and a chicken reduction, plus a cheese course.
One of the judges commented: “We look for something that excites us as chefs. Something we haven’t seen before. It doesn’t have to be a complete reinvention of the wheel, but we like to see people have sat down and thought about what they’re doing, so that it’s not only going to excite
us, but it’s going to excite customers.”
In the Bar Skills competition, Jack had a maximum of five minutes to produce and serve three original cocktails, while demonstrating excellent flavour, knowledge and technique. As a Media Arts student, Jack’s cocktails were all inspired by movies and TV shows which have been filmed at Royal Holloway.
His three cocktails were: Blood of a Gentleman, inspired by an episode of Midsomer Murders, Jack’s Marvel, inspired by the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron and Adder’s Kiss, inspired by Basic Instinct 2.
