Hospitality and Catering students from the Bangor campus of South Eastern Regional College (SERC) won a Bronze award at the IFEX ChefSkill 2010 competition held at the Kings Hall. IFEX ChefSkill 2010 is officially recognized as one of a number of UK wide competitions which will identify potential candidates to compete for a place on Team UK in the Cookery and Restaurant Services competitions in WorldSkills London 2011.
The competition required students to prepare and serve a meal to 50 people at the IFEX exhibition in full view of the public. The students were asked to demonstrate their catering and hospitality skills throughout the day from the preparation to service of meal under the watchful eye of judges. Competitors were asked to show as many craft skills as possible in front of the judges as time allowed and were judged on professional working methods, flavours, textures, hygiene, timing and presentation.
Caroline Keatley, Assistant Head of School for Hospitality at SERC commented; “This is the first time that the College has entered such a competition, it was an excellent opportunity for our students to demonstrate the skills they have learnt during their studies in a high profile competition, competing against some of the top young chefs and hospitality students in Northern Ireland.”
As well as collecting a bronze award for team performance, Patricia McCloskey, a part time student studying NVQ Level 2 Hospitality at SERC was chosen to train with the Northern Ireland Hospitality Worldskills team which will be competing in London in 2011. WorldSkills is the largest international vocational skills competition which takes place every two years in one of the WorldSkills member countries.