An Aberaeron chef has been crowned the best Young Chef in Wales.

Sam Everton, 25, is a hospitality lecturer at Coleg Ceredigion and a part time chef at Y Seler restaurant.

Cooking has been Sam’s passion since he was a child, when he and his grandmother baked and cooked together on Sundays.

He competed against contemporaries from across Wales in the regional round of the World Young Chef Young Waiter competition, hosted by University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

The event took place on 10-11 September at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David Waterfront Campus and ended with a gala award ceremony at the Swansea.com stadium.

After meeting other contestants and working on a day of workshop activities, the chefs started the competition early in the morning, where they had four hours to prepare a three-course lunch from scratch for a table of judges.

Meanwhile, the waiter contestants had to prepare the dining room, and serve food and drink whilst answering questions from the judges.

The results were announced at a gala dinner later that evening at the Swansea.com stadium, where it was announced that Sam Everton had won the competition for chefs.

Later in the evening, a raffle was held, which raised over £1000 for the competition’s charity partner The Burnt Chef Project, who support mental health in the Hospitality industry.

Sam will travel to Monaco to compete in the Young chef Young Waiter world finals on 23-24 November.

He said: “When I entered the competition, I only expected some personal development and a bit of fun. Winning was a huge bonus!

"I’m honoured to be representing Wales on the global stage and very happy to be paired with Carys. I’m looking forward to working with her to deliver world class service and food – hopefully we can bring back-to-back world championship trophies to Wales.”

Dr Jayne Griffith-Parry, Director of Hospitality programmes at UWTSD said: “The YCYW competition is all about educating and supporting young people’s development, whether they are learning in a professional setting or within a Higher Education environment.

“It was fantastic to see a student from our International Gastronomy Management programme reach the Welsh final this year, as well as competitors from establishments we have strong links with who provide work placements for our courses.

"Building professional networks is so important in this industry and it is our pleasure at UWTSD to bring the contestants together for this event and help them expand their potential.”