Two students from West Lothian College have beaten competition from all over Scotland to make it into the final of a top cookery competition.
Arron Legget and Mark Sneddon, only five weeks into their Level 5 Professional Cookery course, wowed the judges with their dishes at the Scottish Chefs Salmon Competition and earned themselves places in the final.
The student chef competition was launched for all Scottish colleges to help increase the awareness and versatility of Scottish salmon on menus across the food service sector in Scotland.
Students who entered the competition, which is supported by Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation, were asked to take a picture of their own salmon dish, upload it to Instagram and tag @scottishchefs and @seafoodfromscotland using the hashtags #lovescottishalmon and #scotchefconf2019.
The winner, along with the runners up, will be invited along to the Scottish Chefs Conference for the day and be presented with their award on the evening of the dinner. They will also receive complementary membership of Scottish Chefs for one year.
Mark said he was delighted with his finalist’s place. He added: “It feels good to get recognised and I’m really happy about it. I just came up with the dish for the competition and it’s great that they liked. I’m nervous about the final now though.”
Audrey Buckley, hospitality lecturer, said: “Our vision is to put West Lothian College on the culinary map. The students reaching the final of the Scottish Chefs Salmon Competition is another great example of what we can do here.”
Chef lecturer, Paul Devonshire added: “Having seen first-hand the pride and elation our students feel when their work has been recognised by outstanding chefs in their field makes all the hard work worthwhile.”
Fellow chef lecturer Alex Sykakis commented: “Seeing what our students can do is brilliant and we love to see them getting the recognition they deserve.”
