Win a masterclass with chefs Derek Johnstone and David Lilley. Plus a Nespresso M100 single head coffee machine for your college.

Scottish Chefs, in partnership with Nespresso Professional, present the third annual Student Coffee Challenge, hosted at Edinburgh College Milton Campus. Open to full-time Catering and Hospitality students, teams of three (two chefs and one front of house) will have two hours to deliver a full afternoon tea service. Required items include a coffee and walnut cake made with Nespresso Blend (served whole at the table and portioned by the front of house), six cocktail-sized flavoured scones with butters and spreads, one savoury item for six, six rounds of finger sandwiches or mini savoury rolls with various fillings made on the day, the bread can be brought in. Six fruit tarts, and one additional sweet item of the competitors choice. The front of house student will set up a table for four guests an hour before service, welcome them with a non-alcoholic cocktail, engage with guests, present the Nespresso coffee menu, and serve two rounds of coffee. They must not assist with food preparation.

OUR JUDGING PANEL

• Joe Queen Chair of The Scottish Chefs Culinary Committee
• Kevin MacGillivray International World Chefs Accredited Judge
• Donna Dowson UK Sales Manager, Nespresso
• Derek Johnstone The first winner of BBC Masterchefs The Professionals
• David Lilley Executive Chef of W Edinburgh & Pastry Chef for The Scottish Culinary Team

THE PRIZE

• A masterclass in their own college with Derek Johnstone and Chef David Lilley
• PLUS winning college will receive a M100 single head coffee machine.

The Scottish Culinary Championships at ScotHot 2025 were an outstanding success!

We had a huge number of entrants competing across a wide variety of classes in the Live Theatre, the Skills Arena and in the Culinary Arts Display. The level of skill and competition was higher than ever and we were delighted to award several gold medals as well as many silver, bronze & merits.

The Scottish Culinary Championships offer a dynamic range of competitions designed to inspire and challenge chefs at every stage of their career. With over 250 chefs competing in senior, junior and open competitions both the Live Theatre and Skills Arena were buzzing from start to finish on both days. The Culinary Arts display was also brimming with entries in competitions such as food photography, decorated cupcakes, chocolate showpiece and floral sugar craft.

Finally a big thank you to our sponsors who include Lomond Foods, Quality Meat Scotland, Biovate, Braehead Foods, Russums, Riso Gallo, Food For Life, Selective Personnel, Wellocks and Belhaven Smokehouse.

30 years ago, a group of Scottish chefs met in a Glasgow hotel to discuss the formation of Scotland’s first National Chefs Association – the outcome was the founding of The Federation of Chefs Scotland (now known as Scottish Chefs) in August 1994.

In 1998 only four years after our founding, Scotland was elected in Melbourne, Australia to become a member of Worldchefs and we have been proud to play our part representing Scotland at major events throughout the world over the last 26 years. Within this time the Scottish Culinary Team has promoted our country’s fine larder across the globe, winning a number of honours in many international competitions.

There have of course been many challenges as well over the last 30 years and we will continue to strive to do our best to promote our country, our future talent and our outstanding food all over the world.

None of our many achievements would have been possible without the support of so many individuals, sponsors, the Scottish Government and of course all board members past & present who we are extremely grateful to for all the support shown to us over the years.

We’re excited to be holding a very special anniversary lunch on Monday 18th November at Scottish Gas Murrayfield to celebrate the past 30 years. Check out our social media for more information.

Scottish Chefs has once again teamed up with Nespresso Professional to run the annual Student Coffee Challenge in November 2024.

The six colleges selected for the final will have access to a Nespresso coffee machine with various coffee pod varieties so they can practice with the flavours of Nespresso coffee. Prizes include invitations to the Scottish Chefs 30th anniversary celebration lunch, the winning recipes will be included in the Scottish Chefs anniversary cookbook, a bespoke pastry chef master class in the winning team’s college PLUS a M100 single head coffee machine for the winning college.