Students work with MasterChef champ to serve five-course meal

More than 30 students from University College Birmingham had a lesson like no other when they got to work with MasterChef: The Professionals winner Dan Lee to prepare a five-course feast for VIP guests from across Birmingham.

Dan, who studied at Birmingham College of Food 12 years ago and won series 14 of MasterChef: The Professionals before Christmas, returned to the kitchen and spent two days helping the next generation of chefs studying Level 3 Professional Cookery hone their skills for the special dinner at the University’s award-winning restaurant.

The 55 guests included Dr Justin Varney, director of public health at Birmingham City Council, Henrietta Brealey, the CEO of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, and Monty Stonehewer, a MasterChef in his own right and head chef at Peels, the Michelin Star-rated hotspot at Hampton Manor.

Guests from local schools and colleges, who work closely with University College Birmingham, also attended the dinner – including deputy headteacher Mike Hosfield from Hall Green Secondary School, where Dan was educated.

Served by Level 3 front of house students, the complex dishes comprised snacks of salmon kinilaw, smoked beef tartare and cured tomatoes and fried bao with miso butter, a starter of BBQ king oyster mushroom with sweet potato and chive, a main of soy cured beef or aubergine with champ and pak choi and a smoked hay treacle tart dessert.

Between courses, each table of guests, which included leading lights from the NHS, food bloggers and representatives from the University’s Guild of Students, got to visit the kitchen and see Dan and the students at work.

And out front, 17-year-old student Maddie Stanley was just one of the evening’s stars of the show, choosing the wines to pair with each dish and presenting them to guests before each course.

After the plates were cleared, Dan led the students out to rapturous applause.

He said: "This is my menu, with bits I've made on MasterChef. I gave the students a prep list and they turned it out. I'm talking dishes that I was stressing over, losing my head. But the students took it on board, took the recipes, and made the food you ate this evening.

"I had a bit of a hand, but it was the students' technique and skills that made it happen. They're incredible. The chefs that are coming through right now from this college are miles ahead of where I was at the time and it's exciting. It's been such a privilege to work with them."