A culinary skills competition comes to Newtown college

Hospitality industry professionals from across Wales travelled to Newtown to judge the next generation of culinary talent at this year’s Skills Competition Wales.

The hospitality competitions were held at NPTC Group of Colleges’ Newtown campus, alongside events at Neath and Coleg Cambria’s Yale campus, with leading figures from across the sector assessing apprentices in culinary arts, restaurant services, patisserie, confectionery and inclusive food preparation.

Organised by Cambrian Training Company, the competitions are designed to test apprentices against industry benchmarks and provide professional feedback to support their development.

A celebration event will be held on the evening of Wednesday, March 18 at the Pavilion Theatre in Rhyl, where medallists will be announced.

Winners of the culinary arts and restaurant services competitions will be invited to represent Wales at the WorldSkills UK finals and potentially the WorldSkills global finals.

Judges for the culinary arts competitions included Arwyn Watkins OBE, president of the Culinary Association of Wales, and Nick Davies, Powys County Council’s principal catering manager. Patisserie and confectionery competitions were judged by the association’s vice president Colin Gray, of Capital Cuisine, Caerphilly, and Karl Jones-Hughes, of Stopio, Narberth.

Restaurant services were judged by Rob Hookham, head of service excellence at the The Celtic Collection, Linda Thomas, former Inspiring Skills Champion for the health and hospitality sector, Marnie Gaskell from Pontio Lounge, Chepstow, and Yuliia Batrak from the George Hotel, Llandudno.

Cambrian Training Company officers Melanie Canning, Nora Jones, Joanna Davies and Gemma Wilkins judged the inclusive food preparation and inclusive restaurant services competitions.

Faith O’Brien, managing director of Cambrian Training Company, said: “Cambrian Training is proud to run the Skills Competition Wales Hospitality competitions. These competitions give apprentices the chance to showcase their talent, build confidence and test their skills against industry benchmarks and play an important role in raising standards and inspiring excellence across the sector.

“We would like to extend our thanks to our team of experienced professional judges that work closely with Cambrian Training. They all are experts in the sectors they were assessing, ensuring high standards and providing valuable, real-world feedback to support apprentices’ development.”

It is a significant year for the hospitality and food industries in Wales, with the Worldchefs Congress & Expo being hosted at ICC Wales, Newport from May 16 to 19. Around 800 chefs from around the world are expected to attend the event, themed “Pasture, Passion, Plate”, hosted by the Culinary Association of Wales. It will be the first time in 98 years that the global congress has been held in the UK.

Matthew Watts, skills champion for Inspiring Skills Excellence in Wales, organisers of Skills Competition Wales, said: “Once again, the standard on display at Skills Competition Wales has been excellent.

“Each year we are impressed by the level of professionalism, creativity and technical ability shown by competitors, and 2026 is no exception.

“The hospitality sector in Wales has a very bright future and competitions like these play a vital role in challenging learners, raising standards and giving them the confidence to progress to national and international stages. It’s inspiring to see so much talent coming through.”