Are you the best university or college chef in the UK?

The search for the TUCO - Knorr Chef of the Year 2010 is officially underway with entries now open to find the UK’s best higher education chef.

Open to all TUCO member universities and colleges, the TUCO - Knorr Chef of the Year competition acknowledges and rewards the top chefs in the higher education sector.

Russ Allen, TUCO national competitions chair explained more: "The TUCO - Knorr Chef of the Year is the only competition where individual chefs can battle it out to be crowned the sector's most talented chef. We are looking for a chef who can demonstrate exceptional culinary skills and create food with flavour, texture, balance and style, but most importantly that is appealing to students."

Current TUCO – Knorr Chef of the Year, Allan Jones, said: "Being a chef in a higher education establishment is an important job as we have a responsibility to provide food for students, that tastes good as well as being good for them. Being able to enter competitions is a great way for us to demonstrate our creative and culinary skills to industry professionals, whilst at the same time showing our ability to design menus that appeal to students."

The competition is part of the TUCO Competitions and Training Event, being held on the 22nd - 23rd March 2010 at Blackpool and Fylde College and Blackpool Hilton Hotel.

Other events taking place during this event are the TUCO National Training Event, the TUCO/CUBO (The Association of College & University Business officers) Foodservice Challenge and the TUCO Chef's Challenge.

Criteria and competition format
To enter the TUCO - KNORR Chef of the Year 2010 competition, contestants must devise a menu including a soup course, a main course using a 1kg free-range chicken as the main ingredient and a dessert.

Fifteen finalists will be chosen from the paper judging stage, to compete in the final at Blackpool College on Monday 22nd March 2010. Each finalist will also attend the awards evening on Tuesday 23rd March, where the winner and two runners up will be announced and presented with their prizes consisting of:

First prize: Meal for two at The Elephant; Simon Hulstone's restaurant, plus knife set and trophy
Second prize: Knife set and trophy
Third prize: Knife set and trophy

Entry details
TUCO and KNORR urge all higher education chefs, male and female, to take up the challenge and enter the competition to discover whether they've got what it takes to be a winner.

Download and complete the official entry form from www.tucoblackpool.co.uk and submit by email to russ.allen@nottingham.ac.uk with details of the entrant's menu.

The closing date for entries is Friday 29th January 2010.

Words: Clare Riley

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