Zest Quest Asia 2024
Congratulations to the winners of Zest Quest Asia 2024 – Sheffield College!
Zest Quest Asia is a culinary competition focused on Asian cuisine, demonstrating student competitor’s creativity, knowledge, and appreciation for the cuisine.
For Tilda, Zest Quest Asia provides a platform to reach, inspire and educate the future generation of chefs, and the industry as a whole. This year, we were immensely proud to hold headline sponsor title for the event.
The winners of this year’s competition will be jetting off on the trip of a lifetime to India – the homeland of Basmati.
THE WINNING MENU
Sheffield College become champions of Zest Quest Asia 2024 with their four course Filipino-inspired menu consisting of an amuse bouche of Portobello Mushroom Sisig, a starter of Tapsilog using the four elements of beef, garlic, fried Tilda Basmati Rice and cured egg yolk. Followed by a main course of Chicken Adobo and finishing up with a dessert of Ube Ice Cream topped with a crunchy, deep fried caramelised Turon with a Don Papa Rum infused caramel sauce.
The outstanding talent and detail displayed in their menu blew judges away.
THE PRIZE
This year’s winners of Zest Quest Asia will be jetting off on the trip of a lifetime to India, flying into Delhi to visit Karim’s – the iconic restaurant of Delhi since 1913, learning more about Asian tastes, flavours, and techniques, exploring the city and visiting the heart of Old Delhi by bicycle.
During the trip, the winners will also discover Tilda’s rice production, uncovering what makes Basmati rice so special.
Congratulations to Phoebe Tuttle, Beth Brewster, Joe Defries and their lecturer Andy Gabbitas
Andy Gabbitas BEM, Chef Lecturer, The Sheffield College: “We are delighted with our win at Zest Quest Asia 2024. This competition is rigorous in its detail, the student’s endless hours of hard work, research and recipe development has paid off and the self-confidence it has given the students is immeasurable.
Zest Quest Asia’s aim of nurturing homegrown talent in Asian food has certainly had an effect here at Sheffield College, year on year student interest grows, so much so that we now set an in-house Asian cuisine competition to select next year’s team! As a result of Zest Quest Asia, Asian inspired dishes regularly feature on our training restaurant menu.”
TILDA BEST USE OF RICE
Tilda Foodservice also returned with their ‘best use of rice’ category.
Student teams were challenged to use any of Tilda’s Basmati range in at least one course from their menu, making rice the hero on the plate.
Congratulations to North Hertfordshire College, deservedly claiming the winning spot with their Steak Donburi, using Tilda Basmati & Wild Rice, cooked to perfection and perfectly aligned to their Japanese style menu.
The award sees North Hertfordshire College embark on an exciting visit to the home of Tilda’s rice in the UK, to tour the factory and rice mill discovering the process of rice production through every stage, before enjoying an all-expenses paid meal at Cyrus Todiwala’s Café Spice Namaste restaurant in London.
Winners of 2023
Last year’s ‘best use of rice’ winners embarked on an Italian adventure, exploring the Po Valley region to discover the process and techniques of rice production.
They were also joined by the winners of Tilda Chef Team of the Year from the Intercontinental London Park Lane.
In addition to this, the winners embarked on a food tour to discover interesting and innovative ways rice is being used across menus, bringing a slice of Italy’s rice culture back home.
Congratulations to all six colleges who made it to the finals of Zest Quest Asia this year!
Cheshire College South & West
Loughborough College
North Hertfordshire College
The Sheffield College
University College Birmingham
New College Durham
