Ayrshire College pair celebrate success at Culinary Olympics
Emilia Woods and Douglas MacPherson brought back two medals from Stuttgart
An Ayrshire College duo is celebrating their success at the Culinary Olympics in Stuttgart.
17 year old Emilia Woods from Kirkoswald, and lecturer Douglas MacPherson from Troon joined the Compass UK Culinary Team to represent the UK against 66 other countries.
It was Emilia’s first competition, and the pair were awarded a silver medal in the Regional Teams cold food art competition, as well as a bronze medal in the Community Catering contest.
She said: “I enjoyed working with the executive chef from Compass I was teamed with, he was good at showing me what to do and keeping me right.
"Delighted to be selected"
“I volunteered for this opportunity at the last minute and was delighted to be selected, I knew it’d be a lot of hard work, but I’d love to be involved in the Culinary Olympics again.
“It was a fantastic experience.”
Dougal has had experience in competition before, competing with the team in the World Cup in Luxembourg and national events in Glasgow and London.
He cooked live against more than 20 teams, supported by Emilia to their bronze medal.
Scoring at the Culinary Olympics is different from tradition athletics, as several teams can get the same medal, but three teams will still be named first, second and third in class.
The team was made up of ten chefs, four students, and two team managers, and they claimed 15th in the world for the hot kitchen and 6th in the world for the regional food art contest.
Dougal, 38, said: “The scoring can be confusing, everyone thinks silver is second, but it’s all about the points, so you could be first in the world with a bronze depending on your final score.
“For example, we were sixth in the world in the Regional Teams competition, which is a fantastic achievement.
"It's probably invaluable"
“The teams who finished above us were international teams who have full time jobs preparing for the Olympics that come every four years, whereas we’re from different colleges and backgrounds as far afield as offshore to Met Police and one member currently working in Texas, put together just for this event.
“Emilia did a great job, not only was this her first time experiencing the competition, but it was also her first time doing any cold food work.”
He added what a valuable opportunity it is for students from the college, saying: “Emilia met guys who are in charge of employing thousands of people into the industry across the UK.
“It’s probably invaluable, you couldn’t put a price on it from a college point of view, it’s something we can’t set up without them helping us.”