Student Chefs triumph at Ulster Scots cookery competition

Student chefs from SERC have travelled to Forth Valley College Scotland to take part in in the Ulster Scots cookery competition.

Students competed against each other in a cook and serve competition and a street food challenge. SERC was represented by students from the Downpatrick, Lisburn and Newtownards campuses.

Students from SERC’s Downpatrick campus Darren Boyle (age 18 from Newcastle) and Eoin Gallagher (Age 21 from Castlewellan) from the Level 2 traineeship in catering competed in the cook and serve competition with Danielle Grant from Carryduff who studies the Level 3 advanced technical diploma in supervision in food and beverage services, acted as front of house.

Students from SERC’s Lisburn campus Abdulkarim Kazan (Age 40 from Belfast) from the Level 2 diploma in professional bakery and Scott Hunter (Age 19 from Bangor) from Level 3 NVQ diploma in professional cookery as well as students from the colleges Newtownards campus Annie Moore (Age 17 from Newtownards), Brandon Devlin (Age 17 from Bangor) & Joel Caldwell (Age 16 from Donaghadee) from Level 2 Catering - Skills for Work competed in the street food competition.

Under the watchful eye of the judge’s, student’s skills were put to the test as the competitions were fiercely fought and incredibly tense with only a few points separating the eventual winners.  

When the winners were announced Annie Moore, Brandon Devlin and Joel Caldwell from the Newtownards campus were celebrating having won the street food challenge.

Darren Boyle, Eoin Gallagher and Danielle Grant were named runners up in the cook and serve competition with the team from Forth Valley just edging ahead.

SERC Head of School for Hospitality, Management, Tourism and Languages James Currie said: “I am extremely proud of all the students and lecturers. They have put a great deal of effort into learning and perfecting their skills over the last year. I am thankful to Forth Valley College for hosting our students. The standard of cooking and front of house service from our teams never seizes to amaze me and it was great to see them all in action and to bring home the winning prize for the street food challenge.”