Seven teams down to three in Teenchef semi-final in Newport

The Teenchef competition sees teams of young people go head-to-head as they cook a healthy meal in just 45 minutes and the best three teams will now face each other in the final at the Riverfront Theatre on the day of the Newport Food Festival, October 5.

The competition is organised by Newport City Council’s youth service and seven teams are challenged with sourcing local and seasonal ingredients available from the market to create a healthy and tasty dish in just 45 minutes.

Newport-born Michelin starred chef and Food Festival patron, Hywel Jones was one of the judges as was Newport council cabinet member for leisure and culture Cllr Debbie Wilcox.

Speaking ahead of the semi-final, Cllr Wilcox said: "The competition started back in May with the heats and all the youngsters have done very well to reach the semi-finals.

"I would like to wish them the best of luck for the competition."

The seven teams competing in the semi-final were Jessica Charles, Elisha Blair, Kiara-Rose Cantelo and Adam Wilkinson from St Julian's cooking zesty chicken with herb and spice cous cous; Alexandra Liddell, Toby Collins and Richard Charles from Serennu cooking vegetable crumble with garlic bread and salad; the

Duke of Edinburgh group, Gemma Watts, Cassandra Thomas, Laura Smith and Bethan Jones making Italian meatballs with pasta; Natalia Wynne-Hughes, Eve Smith, Bethany Harris, Lauren O Brien from Cefn Wood who created a Cefn Wood pie; the Alway team of Laura Rosser, Aston Brown and Richard Patterson, who whipped up chicken ricotta with spring onion and pine nuts with roasted sweet potato; a Young Women’s group comprising Sabreem Hussain, Alina Hussain, Afsheen Saleem and Seahar Mulchter, making mini lasagne baskets and potato salad; and the Stow Hill team of Karin Bellow, Chloe Pearson, Lauren Bantick, Abbie May and Sophie Whatley, who made butternut squash curry with rice.

The top three teams will now contest the final on the day of the Food Festival.