Two young mid Wales apprentices has won a new competition launched by the Culinary Association of Wales to find the best green chef.
Commis chefs Gabbi Wilson and Rosie Koffer, workmates at Chartists 1770 at The Trewythen, Llanidloes, are the first winners of the Green Chef Challenge, sponsored by Compass Cymru.
“I have only been a commis chef for six months and winning this competition is very exciting,” said Gabbi, 18, from Rhayader.
The pair both won gold medals for Gabbi’s three-course vegetarian menu with judges scoring their dishes at 90 per cent or over.
The dishes will be on the Chartists 1770 menu from 30 January.
The menu opened with tempura seaweed tacos with pickled cabbage slaw, cashew cream and falafel. Main course was braised leeks, pomme dauphine, sauteed mushrooms and green leek mayo. Dessert was vanilla Cremieux with caramac, lemon curd, lemon and cider gel, poached pears and a brown butter crumb.
Chartists 1770 at the Trewythen is a boutique training restaurant with rooms owned by Cambrian Training Company, the leading hospitality apprenticeship provider in Wales.
The business, which has just retained two rosettes and has four stars, has a team of eight apprentices – four in the kitchen and four front-of-house.
The Green Chef Challenge final was held at the Welsh International Culinary Championships (WICC) hosted by the International Convention Centre Wales (ICC Wales), Newport.
Both apprentices had a busy three days at the WICC.
Rosie was commis chefs to Chartists 1770 executive chef Jamie Tully in the National Chef of Wales final, where he won a bronze medal.
She then competed in the Junior Chef of Wales final with Gabbi as her commis, achieving silver medals.
Faith O’ Brien, managing director of Cambrian Training Company said: “I am bursting with pride.
“We firmly believe in backing up our words with action by actively encouraging our learners and staff to challenge themselves and compete against the top in their peer group to continually build their expertise, confidence and skills.”