Vincent Wood, a demi chef at Wyboston Lakes conference and training centre in Bedfordshire, has clinched a significant national accolade.  He won the 'Best Starter' award in the recent Conference Centres of Excellence/IACC Chefs Challenge2011, afiercely competitive event for chefs from specialist conference venues across the UK.

The Chefs Challenge invites entries from the 41 members of the Conference Centres of Excellence consortium of specialist venues, and from members of IACC, the International Association of Conference Centres.  Finalists are selected on the basis of written menus, and then compete in an 'against the clock' cook-off atStratford-upon-AvonCollege.

The judging took place under Salon Culinaire conditions, with demanding standards set for hygiene, ingredient sourcing and cost. The team of judges included Graham Crump, Secretary General of the Education Committee of the World Association of Chefs and Jim Eaves, Chairman of the British Culinary Federation.

Vincent's winning dish was a 'Trio of Classic Crab'. It included dressed crab with Scotch egg and olive tapenade, crab bisque and crab and avocado salad.  He had 2.5 hours to prepare the dish.

He has been working his way up in catering since he left school in 2007.  He first joinedWybostonLakesin 2008 as a kitchen porter and was promoted to commis chef shortly afterwards. After a short period with an Italian restaurant inCambridge, he returned toWybostonLakesin March this year.

His successful effort in this year's Chefs Challenge owed much to the support of Andrew Wale, Wyboston Lake's Food & Beverage Supervisor, who accompanied Vincent during the event and played the role of waiter as the chef served his dish in restaurant conditions. Andrew, who has been with the venue for two years, is currently taking part in its supervisory and management development programme.

The award has given both Vincent and Andrew a real taste for competition. "We are both more determined than ever to enter future competitions to build our skills and industry knowledge," commented Vincent:  "It's also a great feeling to be able to come back from the competition arena and share success with our colleagues."

"The Chefs Challenge has for many years been an important demonstration of the increasingly high standards of cuisine that are available in the specialist conference venue sector," said Mark Jones, Managing Director of Wyboston Lakes: "Wyboston Lakes continues to play a central role in driving forward those standards and Vincent's success underlines how our own cuisine achieves the highest levels of quality and creativity for our customers."