Sheffield College triumphs again at Zest Quest Asia

The Sheffield College have been crowned Zest Quest Asia champions for the third time in six years, continuing their remarkable record in one of the UK’s leading student culinary competitions.

The Sheffield College have once again been named overall champions of Zest Quest Asia, with the winning team now set for a prize trip to Hong Kong courtesy of headline sponsor Lee Kum Kee. The winners were announced at the competition’s gala dinner and awards night at Hilton London Wembley.

Culinary students Destiny Breeze, Amos Peck and Luke Swift secured the title with a menu that clearly impressed the judges, featuring Sichuan pork dumpling with Lee Kum Kee oyster dipping sauce, mushroom mapo tofu with mantou steamed bun, jasmine tea smoked duck breast with crispy Tilda jasmine rice cake, bok choi and fermented chilli glaze, followed by chrysanthemum-infused osmanthus jelly with Sichuan pepper ice cream and red bean tuile.

The result means Sheffield have now won the competition in 2022, 2024 and 2026, underlining the college’s growing strength in Asian culinary competition work. They were also runners-up in 2025.

Andy Gabbitas praises team’s work ethic

Andy Gabbitas, chef lecturer at The Sheffield College, will again accompany the winning team on the prize trip and said the success was built on months of hard work.

He said: “This team has been practising for 160 hours since October. They have worked so hard, and I am really over the moon. We are all so excited to go to Hong Kong.

“My message to future competitors of Zest Quest Asia is to please have a go, put your heart and soul into it and you’ll reap the rewards. It’s given me a great amount of satisfaction watching the young kids thrive. At our college now, every chef wants to enter Zest Quest Asia. It’s been brilliant.”

That emphasis on development was echoed by Nigel Barden, BBC food and drink broadcaster and returning host of the event.

Nigel said: “Zest Quest Asia is so special because it’s a great way of giving a voice to these fabulous students but also to the chef mentors who look after them.

“Not only is it the hours of practice, but it’s giving the students the confidence to stand up and eulogise about their dishes to the judges, not just cook them. It takes a lot of guts to do that and so it really prepares them for this fabulous world of culinary arts.”

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A competition with strong industry backing

Zest Quest Asia was founded by Cyrus and Pervin Todiwala and is designed to test students’ technical skill, creativity and understanding of Asian cuisine. The 2026 final featured eight colleges from across the UK.

Cyrus, chef patron of Café Spice Namaste, said: “Congratulations to all the teams who got as far as the finals and of course to The Sheffield College who are outstanding, well-deserved winners. I hope they will get as much as they can from their prize.”

He added that the Hong Kong trip had been planned to give the students as complete an experience as possible, from local dining to markets and food culture.

Other winners on the night included Cheshire College South & West for best menu planning, University of West London for the Andrew Bennett Teamwork Award, North Hertfordshire College for best menu presentation and University College Birmingham for most sustainable menu.

For The Sheffield College, though, this was the headline moment again - proof that their Zest Quest Asia success is no one-off, but a standard they have now set repeatedly on one of the biggest student competition stages in the sector.