UK hospitality contestants win two medals at WorldSkills event

The UK’s hospitality contestants have won a gold and bronze medal at this year’s WorldSkills event which was held in Calgary, Canada, Caterer can reveal.

Adam Smith, sous chef at the Ritz hotel in London, has won a gold, and Katie Watson, chef de rang at the Gleneagles hotel in Scotland, a bronze medal.

Now in their 40th year, the biennial WorldSkills competition took place over four days last week and saw 900 young people from 46 countries take part in a variety of skills competitions.

Disciplines included cabinet making, landscape gardening, graphic design, floristry and hairdressing. The hospitality industry was represented by three categories: cooking, confectionery and pastry cooking, and restaurant service.

Smith, who earlier this year supported Simon Hulstone as commis chef at the Bocuse d’Or competition in Lyon, France, was one of three gold medal winners in the cooking competition, along with chefs representing Germany and Korea. He is the second UK chef to have won the prestigious accolade after Hulstone, who won it in 1995.

Watson was awarded a bronze medal in the restaurant service category, while Alistair Birt from Thames Valley University picked up a medallion for excellence in the confectionary competition.

The UK’s WorldSkills team is managed by UK Skills working in partnership with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Department for Employment and Learning Northern Ireland, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and key partners from education, government and industry. 

The next WorldSkills competition will take place in London in 2011.

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By Kerstin Kühn

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