This week eight teams of catering students from around the UK tested their mettle in the National Seafood Championship Final at the Grimsby Institute.

The Seafood Championship is a competition for full-time catering students in the UK. The aim is to encourage the young chefs to develop their creative fish-cooking skills. This year for the first time the emphasis was on sustainable sourcing as menus had to be created choosing only from a list of ten species certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

This year's winners were Liam Dillon and Shaney Ayre of Birmingham College. Their prizes include the Seafood Championship Trophy, plus placement opportunities either with Fishworks or in the Young's new product team.

Young’s has supported the event for a number of years, supplying all the fish for the competition final, prize money and judging expertise. The judging team was led for the second time by Mitchell Tonks of Fishworks, assisted by Young’s chefs Gerry Mahood and Serge Nollent. The judging panel also included Austin Mitchell MP and Robert Thompson of Winteringham Fields, the UK’s youngest Michelin-starred chef.

Each team of two student chefs had to prepare three fish dishes for six covers, including soup, starter and main course using sea fish from the designated MSC list and with a total food cost of no more than £10 per cover.

The competition was also supported by Seafish and the Grimsby Fish Merchants Association.

For more information about this competition contact the Grimsby Institute. Tel Alex Rimmer on 01472 311222 ext. 552 or Amanda Cropper on ext. 181