Talented chef Arron Tye ticked off one of his career ambitions when he received the Junior Chef of Wales trophy last night (Thursday).
The 23-year-old chef de partie from Carden Park Hotel, Chester who is captan of Junior Culinary Team Wales, clinched the coveted title after a closely contested final at the Welsh International Culinary Championships (WICC) atGrŵp Llandrillo Menai’s, Rhos-on-Sea campus.
“I have always wanted to win this award and hopefully I can go forward to the National Chef of Wales final in the future,” he said. “I hope this award means that I am going to do great things and move up with my career.”
Tye’s Junior Culinary Team Wales teammate Harry Paynter-Roberts, 20, Manchester House Restaurant, Manchester, was a runner-up for the second year running.
The other runners-up were Oliver Thompson, 19, The Bull, Beaumaris, Luke Rawicki, 20, who works at The Slaughters Manor House, Lower Slaughter, Cheltenham and Thomas Martin, 21, Holm House Hotel, Penarth.
Tye’s reward for winning the competition is a three-day, all-inclusive culinary tour with Koppert Cress in Holland, which will include a masterclass from a two-star Michelin chef, cooking for the company’s chief executive in a development kitchen and an introduction to new cress developments and Dutch cuisine new market trends.
He also automatically qualified for the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Young National Chef of the Year contest semi-final and received a set of engraved knives from Friedr Dick and a £100 voucher for products from Churchill.
The chefs cooked a three-course menu for four people in three hours, using Welsh ingredients wherever possible.
Tye’s winning menu opened with a starter of pan fried Anglesey scallops and seabass fillet with tortellini, charred Welsh baby leeks, pickled onion cups, leek puree and onion broth. Main course was Rhug Estate organic pork fillet wrapped pancetta served with sage and onion sausage glazed young carrot, pot roasted savoy cabbage and orange and carrot puree. Dessert was Blodyn Aur rapeseed sponge with Gwynt y Ddraig cider apples, honeycomb tuile, loganberry cremeux and blackberry ice cream.
Paynter-Roberts served up a starter of roasted scallops, celeriac and beurre noisette followed by a main course of salt age duck breast, blackberry and baked beetroot. Dessert was quince, red wine, walnut and vanilla ice cream.
The WICC are organised by the Culinary Association of Wales and the main sponsor is Food and Drink Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government’s department representing the food and drink industry.
Other sponsors include Meat Promotion Wales/Hybu Cig Cymru, Castell Howell, Major International, Harlech Foods, H. N. Nuttall, Churchill, MCS Tech, Rollergrill, Koppertcress and Dick Knives.
Martin’s dishes included a starter of seabass and crab tartare, a main course of lamb leek and celeriac and a dessert of rhubarb soufflé with ginger ice cream. Due to a problem with his soufflé mix, he was unable to served up his dessert on time.
Thompson cooked a starter of pan fried Menai king scallop, cauliflower and white chocolate puree and sweet and sour vinaigrette. Main course was roast Welsh loin of venison, pommes Anna, salt baked beetroot and smoked chocolate jus. Dessert was poached mulled apple, hazelnut tuile, caramel ganache and sage and sweet wine dressing.
Rawicki’s menu opened with veal sweetbread, mushroom, cauliflower and bone marrow followed by a main course of stone bass, pickled clam, leek and dulce sauce. Dessert was honey mousse, ginger, lemon and whiskey.
The final judges were Culinary Association of Wales vice president Colin Gray, Worldchefs continental director for Northern Europe Dragan Unic, Junior Culinary Team Wales manager Michael Evans, Culinary Team Wales captain Danny Burke and Nick Davies.
The WICC are organised by the Culinary Association of Wales and the main sponsor is Food and Drink Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government’s department representing the food and drink industry.
Other sponsors include Meat Promotion Wales/Hybu Cig Cymru, Castell Howell, Major International, Harlech Foods, H. N. Nuttall, Churchill, MCS Tech, Rollergrill, Koppertcress and Dick Knives.
