Student Pastry Chefs: Your Time has Come!

If you are studying to be a chef and you love pastry, then you must enter our exclusive competition: Student Pastry Chef of the Year 2022.

It’s that simple. There are amazing prizes but, more than that, you’ll learn so much from the experience and the opportunity to meet our amazing judges.

To enter is simple: send a brief CV and short introduction about yourself by Friday 4th March along with three photos of either plated desserts, cakes or decorative items you have produced. Finish this off with a short description outlining why you wish to enter the competition. Feel free to make this a video if you wish.

We’re reaching to all college lecturers to spread the work and encourage your students to enter this potentially life-changing opportunity.

Please email competition coordinator Alexandra Duncan for full competition details and entry form at alexandra@redcherry.uk.com

Entries need to be sent to Alexandra by FRIDAY 4th MARCH.

Our judges, led by UK Pastry Team President, Jamie Houghton of Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons, will assess all entries and notify the 20 successful students by email. These 20 will then be the semi-finalists and will have a specific task to undertake.

Task details

Design a ‘Dessert on the Go’ item, to include ingredients the students must use as supplied by HB Ingredients and equipment supplied by Mitchell & Cooper.

Competitors will need to complete the following for their semi-final submission:

The entry must:

Include all recipes, an ingredients list, quantities, and methods.
Show the stages in the production of the dessert snack on the go, either using step-by-step photographs, drawings or a video.
Be able to be produced in 4 hours, including all its components.

Note: 4 hours is the amount of time the competitors will have if they proceed to the live final, where they will produce the snack to go live in front of the panel of expert judges.

From the 20 semi-finalists 8 will progress to the live final which takes place at Hotel Café Royal in London on Tuesday 10th May where they will have four hours to complete their dessert.

The judges of this years competition are:

Jamie Houghton – Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons & UK Pastry Team
Michael Kwan – Hotel Café Royal & UK Pastry Team
Chris Underwood – Artisserie
Thibault Houchard – Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester
Benoit Blin – Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons & TV Judge Bake Off : The Professionals
Daniel Pearse – The Savoy

The competition is being kindly sponsored by Adande, Henley Bridge Ingredients, Mitchell & Cooper, Bragard and Matfer Bourgeat and we are very grateful to these fantastic suppliers for their generous support of the next generation of pastry chefs!

Here’s what last year’s winner, Unaisa Hussein of Leicestershire college had to say:

“This was the first competition I have ever entered and to win it was absolutely incredible. It was an honour to be a part of this competition, especially being a finalist. It was a difficult challenge as all of the other finalists were brilliant and produced some spectacular entremets despite tough conditions and to have won against such strong competitors felt really special.”

Here’s the film of last year’s final: