Fifteen colleges.  One Cambridge Culinary Competition 2011. Cooking doesn’t get tougher than this.

The competition is back for another year with teams of enthusiastic, talented chefs from the University’s colleges competing for the prestige of the Steward’s cup. This year the intensity has been pushed up a notch with all elements of the competition taking place on the same day at the Cambridge Regional College.

The participating colleges produced a spectacularly high level of food: canapés, cold starters, hot main courses, hot vegetarian main courses, cold sweets, and afternoon tea cakes and petits fours. A special class was set aside for the under 21s and the Front of House Competition. The ‘live’ competition element saw chefs busily preparing their dishes on the large screens of the main judging chamber. A prestigious panel of judges (including Peter Griffiths MBE) lined up each college’s entries over the course of the day, with the final results to be announced at a prize ceremony on November 10th.

First created in 1961 by the Food and Cookery Association of East Anglia, the competition was reinvented in 2006 following a twenty year gap. Since its re-emergence the competition has been dominated by Sidney Sussex (2007-2009) and Emmanuel (2006, 2010). Now we must wait to see whether either college will be able to clinch another team victory or whether a newcomer will make it onto the stage.

The competition’s organiser, Nick Lomax is keen to make more of the Hospitality, Front of House category in future years. Next year may also see the introduction of a seasonal produce category. He offers his continuing to support the under 21 category, whose exceptionally high standard demonstrated this year will surely make for a fascinating competition in years to come.