A pastry chef who learnt her professional cookery and hospitality skills at Coleg Ceredigion’s Bwyty Maes y Parc training restaurant may be in the running to represent the UK at the WorldSkills final in Shanghai.
Hedydd Davies, who continues to be professionally supported by the college, completed her studies in 2019 and during that time, her talent was nurtured and she progressed to enter a variety of competitions and won a gold medal at Skills Competition Wales in 2018.
As a result, Hedydd took part in the WorldSkills UK national final at Birmingham’s NEC where she was selected for the UK long squad by Dr Shyam Patiar, a UK training manager representing restaurant service for WorldSkills UK.
WorldSkills competitions select the very best competitors who are training within their field and provide them with a rigorous training programme to prepare them to represent their country and compete globally against the best in the world.
Hedydd has recently been selected in the top three and she will be training and being tested between now and March 2022 for the chance to be chosen for Squad UK.
Coleg Ceredigion’s catering and hospitality team is still involved in Hedydd’s competition journey, helping to arrange any specific training or pressure testing, providing specialist consultations with staff as well as continued advice and use of college facilities.
In June this year, she was put through her paces in a week-long pressure test at Coleg Ceredigion’s training restaurant, Bwyty Maes y Parc by her UK training managers.
She was tested on her Barista skills, advanced cocktail making which included her own signature cocktail and mocktail and her knowledge of wine where she was blind tested.
As part of the testing, she also had to prepare food at the customer’s table hosting two lunch services for a table of four which included a table-side prawn cocktail, a steak Diane flambé and strawberries Romanoff.
The second service was a banqueting challenge where she had to serve a table of six with a mixture of plated and silver service and serve a gateaux table-side.
Huw Morgan, lecturer in hospitality and catering at Coleg Ceredigion said:
“We are so proud of Hedydd’s achievements so far.
“This is a huge commitment on her behalf, she is undertaking intense training in her spare time and working as a pastry chef at Crwst.
“A lot of Hedydd’s training has taken place online due to the Covid-19 pandemic so it’s been even harder on her this year but with supportive employers and the expertise of Coleg Ceredigion’s Cardigan campus staff behind her, we wish her all the very best in the next step of squad selection, which will include training in some of the UK’s top restaurants and hotels.”
Hedydd is also very well connected with current students where she is passing on her skills by providing advanced food service skills demonstrations at the College’s training restaurant.
