COLEG CAMBRIA student Dylan Quartly is one step away from winning £3,000 and being named the UK’s rising ‘Wokstar’ in a new Chinese cooking competition for catering students.

Dylan, aged 18, dazzled the judges in the very first heat of the competition, which saw five students from the college’s Yale site in Wrexham put to the test and asked to serve up a Chinese hot dish, cold dish and dessert.

Under intense pressure, Dylan served up the best hot and cold dish and was named the overall heat winner by chair of judges Mike Jennings of the Hospitality Hut. Fellow student Edward James produced the best dessert in the heat.

Dylan now goes through to the final, which will be held at the award-winning Lu Ban Restaurant in Liverpool on June 17.

Mr Jennings said: “It was fantastic to see such an energetic and enthusiastic group of students compete in the Wokstar heat.

“The level of cooking was extremely high with a very detailed approach. All of the students taking part can be proud of what they achieved. We look forward to seeing Dylan and the other students in Liverpool.”

The Wokstar 2022 competition, which is supported by the Lu Ban Foundation, the Chinese Department for Education and Tianjin School of Cuisine, has been introduced to promote skills in Chinese culinary arts and to give student chefs an insight into Chinese cuisine.

This is the first year of the competition, which features a total of six colleges taking part from across England and Wales, with the aim to expand it further across the UK next year.

All of this year’s competitors and their tutors will be invited to Liverpool and the final. The heat winners will be ‘grilled’ by a panel of food and drink experts, while the rest enjoy a tour of Liverpool.

The winning Wokstar will be announced on the day, while the winning tutor will be invited back to enjoy a night at the Chef’s Table at Lu Ban.

The ceremony is scheduled to be broadcast live to China to coincide with Tianjin Vocational Skills Week.

Lu Ban Foundation director and Wokstar competition consultant Mike Mounfield explained the thinking behind the contest and how the foundation is supporting it.

He said: “We were aware that many culinary competitions aren’t an option for colleges to participate in, so following advice from the Professional Association for Catering Education (PACE) and consultation with senior food lecturers, Lu Ban Foundation developed the Wokstar competition to overcome the challenges and complications.

“This has included the Wokstar supporters funding all of the ingredients for the students to compete in the competition.”

For more information on the competition and for details of all the heat winners follow the Wokstars competition via www.wokstar.org

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