Vishma Bhattachan, 18, and Roshan Gurung, 17, faced off against other students from Barnet, Southgate and Waltham Forest Colleges in the North London Colleges Catering Cup; preparing 3 courses for four guests and three judges in an exhausting four and a half hour cook-off.

Both Nepalese by birth, Vishma moved to Briton less than three years ago and lives in Victor Grove, Wembley, while Roshan followed his family to London just over a year ago and now lives in Whitton Avenue East, Sudbury.

Vishma currently works weekends as a Larder Chef at Mayfair’s prestigious Chesterfield Hotel.

Finishing second by only two points, the team said they were instilled with a passion for food and cooking at a young age.

“I chose to do catering because it’s my passion; I love to cook, I love to cook at home, I just want to learn more about food,” said Vishma, who’s studying an NVQ in Professional Cookery Level 2.

“When I was twelve I had that feeling, my mum used to cook very spicy food and it was delicious. So I thought, why don’t I become a chef?”

Studying a Level 1 NVQ in Hospitality, Roshan said that while he was also inspired by his mum, his grandmother had been the driving force behind his culinary obsession.

“I remember when I was growing up, cooking with my grandma in the kitchen and she would say, do this, don’t do that, put that in; she was the perfect chef,” said Roshan.

As winners of last year’s inaugural competition, the College of North West London hosted this year’s contest at its Wembley Park campus’s training restaurant – ‘The Tower’ – in North End Road.

Teams of two were asked to prepare a menu featuring 3 main ingredients – Lemon Sole, Pork Tenderloin and Seasonal English Soft Fruits – and display their skills in Turning, French Cuts, Piping, Skinning and Plaiting.

The CNWL team prepared a starter of lemon sole fillet with a mushroom stuffing in a cream sauce, followed by a main of pork fillet served on a bed of stir fried vegetables with a light apple brandy dressing, and a trio of desserts to finish.

The experienced judging panel consisted of: Timothy Jarrold, a semi-retired Food Service Lecturer with over 21 years experience; Christopher Cole, the former Managing Director of Bath’s prestigious Lucknam Park Hotel; and Yvan Cahour, College Relations Coordinator and Pastry Advisor for the Association Culinaire Française, which promotes French culinary arts in the UK.

Mr Cahour said he was highly impressed by the skills on display during the competition.

“Everyone showed exceptional skills in the preparation, and the quality of the preparation, and the skills on show were very even between everyone. Flavours throughout, generally, were excellent,” he said.

“I’ve done judging for many competitions and I’ve seen some, so-called, professionals and when they leave the kitchen, it’s like a bomb hit the site! And so on that score, they’ve done well and I’m very, very impressed.”

He singled out the CNWL team for their culinary knife skills; the team prepared a number of Vegetable Allumettes – vegetables cut up into identical thin match-like lengths.

Selected to represent the College through an internal competition in the College’s catering department, Vishma and Roshan had never cooked together as a team until the event on Friday June 20.

The pair said they were very satisfied with the result, and hoped it would help them on their way to their dream of becoming head chefs.

PICTURE SHOWS:

Roshan (left) and Vishma (right) preparing their dessert.