GASTRONOMIC geniuses at Swindon College have battled it out in a Masterchef-style showdown to try and claim the ‘Chef of the Year’ title.

The annual competition is now in its sixth year and sees dozens of wannabe cooks put together their best three-courses in hope of wowing judges.

Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Swindon Thamesdown, this year’s competition saw 80 Year 1 Level 2, Fast Track Level 2 and Level 3 Pro Cookery students rustle up a whole host of culinary delights from across the globe in the final held on Friday.

Featuring 11 teams of four, the theme was to produce a World Cup celebration dinner – with each team randomly selecting a country to base their fine dining courses on.

From Costa Rica to Germany, Japan to Portugal, students were judged on how they produced their three courses in areas of flavour, presentation, technical skills and food safety.

Lecturer Sian Vockins was astounded by how hard the students worked – calling this year’s entries the best to date.

“The students gain so much out of it for being in the spotlight and competing against one another,” she said.

“When they come to work in the industry, they will come across other chefs and so will have to constantly up their game which this competition encourages.

“This was the best range of food we have ever had.

“We brought in the World Cup theme as something new and because they had the countries to draw inspiration from, they really went to town on producing the best food they could but also how they decorated and dressed the tables to present it on.”

The four judges on the day included two members of the Rotary Club alongside Steve Shaw, Developmental Chef for Arthur David, the college’s fruit and vegetable supplier, and Darren Booker-Wilson Head Chef at The Newbury Gastro Pub in Newbury.

The winners were Liam Cunningham, Michael Deval, Belanna Bakker and Rutuja Wali who took on the country of Australia.

The prizes were donated by the Rotary Club which included monetary gifts as well as engraved knife sets.

Sian added: “The competition works well having the two industry judges because they can give students feedback and almost rubber stamp how we are meeting industry needs. The students love doing the competition and the prizes are fantastic.”

Fellow lecturer Paul Kelly added: “This year’s competition has been the best standard we have experienced in years. The students excelled in all areas of the event. The overall winners and runner up were only separated by one point.

"This competition has been kindly supported by the rotary for around five years now and I’m sure it will continue for many more. Some students are already talking about what they can do next year.”