The search is on for the 2019 UK Young Seafood Chef of the Year

Entries are now open for the 2019 UK Young Seafood Chef of the Year, sponsored by Seafish, the public body that supports the £10b UK seafood industry.

The annual competition, now in its 17th year, seeks out aspiring chefs and encourages them to cook with seafood.

The young chefs, all under the age of 25, will compete in one of three regional heats to be held at City College, Norwich (10 May), Sunderland College (17 May), and Coleg Llandrillo Cymru, North Wales (24 May). They will work in teams of two to produce a three-course seafood menu using sustainably sourced seafood.

2018 competition winners Jamie Cracknell and Sagar Massey from West College Scotland said they were "overwhelmed" by their win last year. "We weren't expecting it at all but we had really good insight from our lecturers over the year, which really helped us onto the right path. The competition is a great way to progress your career and opens your eyes to innovative ways of cooking seafood."

Nine teams will go through to the Grand Final at the Grimsby Institute on Friday 7 June where they will cook a three-course seafood menu while being judged.

Paul Robinson, curriculum manager, hospitality at the Grimsby Institute, said: "This competition gives young chefs a chance to develop new skills. It's invaluable and will help with their future careers in the catering industry."

The winning team will receive a Koppert Cress ‘Cressperience' trip to Holland; a Robot Coupe Robot Cook food processor; £500 each; £1,000 voucher for Russum's catering equipment for their college; cookbook; competition trophy, medal and prize certificates. All winning recipes will feature on the Seafood Week 2019 website.

The deadline for applications and paper entries to the competition is Monday 1 April 2019.

For more information visit www.ukseafood.co.uk

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