A TEAM from Kendal College beat off eight others to be crowned UK Young Seafood Chef of the Year 2017.

William Bolsover, aged 17, and Niall Frith, aged 18, were one of nine teams to go to the final at the Grimsby Institute, Lincolnshire.

All competitors were asked to create three seafood courses from scratch using sustainable species specifically chosen for them.

A new addition this year was the ‘invention test’ which challenged the finalists to create an intermediate seafood course, selecting from a list of 15 ingredients including seafood, which they were only given the evening before the final.

The winners were commended for their menu, consisting of sous vide salmon and pan fried hake, which showed inventiveness and demonstrated a range of advanced cooking techniques. The judges commented that the dishes produced were exceptional and praised the young chefs for the level of skills and confidence they displayed in the kitchen.

Highly regarded across the seafood industry for the valuable experience it gives to contestants, the national competition’s 2017 panel included some of the country’s most successful chefs.

New to the judging panel this year was Michelin-star chef Nathan Outlaw, who previously worked with television chef and seafood expert Rick Stein.

The day prior to the competition, Nathan provided the teams with a masterclass on seafood and was on hand at the final to provide expert culinary advice alongside author Franck Pontais, Serge Nollent, executive development chef at Young’s and Nikki Hawkins, events manager at Seafish.

Yannick Lequitte, chef lecturer at Kendal College added: “This is a great competition for students to enter. It is high profile and rewards best practice and skills and also educated the students on the nutritional values of seafood. I am very proud of my students for this achievement and I’d encourage other colleges to enter their teams, as it could be you taking the title next year.”