SERC Bangor Hosts UK Riso Gallo Young Risotto Chef of the Year Regional Heats

SERC’s Bangor campus recently hosted the UK Riso Gallo Young Risotto Chef of the Year regional heats, welcoming eleven students from across SERC, Ulster University, Belfast Met and Belfast Central Training.

The students were given a short brief on the competition and were given one hour to create their own spin on a risotto dish, using ‘Riso Gallo’ authentic Italian risotto rice in the campus kitchens.

Three students from SERC: Robyn Allen (Level 2 Professional Chef Traineeship); Dylan Murphy (Level 3 Professional Cookery Apprenticeship) both from the Bangor campus; and Matthew Beech (Level 2 Professional Chef Traineeship) from the Lisburn campus, represented the college in the heat of the kitchens under timed conditions. The students were then judged by a panel of experts including Gary Guiney, (Chef and Author of ‘Food to Wolf Down’), Tony O’Neill (Chef and Managing Director of Coppi and Buba restaurants), and Geoff Baird (Business Development Chef, Henderson Foodservice). The awards were then presented by Jason Morrison, Managing Director of Riso Gallo.

Brian Magill, Hospitality Lecturer, SERC, commented:

"This is our second year hosting the UK Riso Gallo Young Risotto Chef of the Year regional heats at our Bangor campus, in which young chefs across Northern Ireland compete to make the best risotto dish for three prominent industry chef judges. Our three competitors, Dylan Murphy, Robyn Allen, and Matthew Beech did exceptionally well to produce three amazing risotto dishes well within the given time limit and got brilliant feedback from the judges."

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