A chef from Aylesbury has won an international award for his vegetarian dish.

Joe Slater, 18, who works as a part-time chef at The Chequers Inn in Weston Turville at weekends, found the recipe for success to win Best Vegetarian Dish in this year’s International Young Chef Olympiad.

The cook came fourth overall in the global competition against students and apprentices from across six continents and 24 time zones.

READ MORE: Student chef from Aylesbury to take part in the Young Chef Olympiad

The competition, in its eighth year, saw participants take a skills test, before a cooking challenge with the top 10 going through to a final cook-off to decide the winner.

Joe, who is in the third year of a Professional Chef diploma, said: “It was an honour to be picked to represent England in the Young Chef Olympiad 2022.

Joe in action

Joe in action

"I did my best and was happy with how my dishes turned out. I couldn’t have done much more.”

“I felt well-prepared, particularly for the first round, because I’d practised that a lot.

"I was a bit nervous at first, but I began to settle down once I got going. It was a great experience and made me a better chef.

“The competition taught me a lot about time management and being able to precisely prep dishes and make them quickly.

“It was a good opportunity to push myself further and test myself against other young chefs and see what I could achieve.

"It looks good on my CV and will really help my career.”

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Joe was mentored for the competition by WestKing Chef Lecturer Chris Basten, a former chair of the Craft Guild of Chefs.

He said: “We are exceptionally proud of Joe.

"He has worked tirelessly to practise and hone his culinary skills and created fantastic dishes in the competition and rightly got the recognition his hard work and commitment deserves.

“I would like to congratulate Joe on this fantastic achievement. He is a fantastic student who has proved himself to be a skilled and competent chef on the world stage. He is a credit to the college and definitely one to watch out for in the future.”

WestKing is one of the UK’s leading schools for Hospitality and Culinary Arts with an alumni including Jamie Oliver, Ainsley Harriott and Sophie Wright.