A student from West London College has won the Student Pastry Chef of the Year competition from The Chef's Forum. 

Kai Whittaker, 23, won with his dish rum baba with passion fruit curd, coconut chocolate ganache, cream and white chocolate cream, Italian meringue and pineapple tartar, which impressed at the high-profile event on 10th May. 

The competition was judged by a collection of accomplished chefs, including: Michael Kwan, Michael D'Angelo, Franciane Tartari, Enrico Carloni, Biju Joshwa, Cherish Finden, Nelson Sa, Thibault Hauchard, and Benoit Blin. 

Tartari, lead judge, said: "This year we set a high bar for the students, and they really delivered. Kai Whittaker's rum baba was a real demonstration of skill and showed why it is so important to study the craft of pastry. 

"Every element of his dish was perfect, and he was a worthy winner in a strong field." 

The runner-up for the award came from University of West London, Katrina Tañas Atienza, with the West London pair finishing top out of the eight finalists from across the country. 

Denise Charles, Head of Curriculum for Service Industries was delighted to host the competition, said: "We were delighted to host this prestigious competition for the second time and enter it for the third year running – We were absolutely over the moon that one of our learners won.  

"We really are so proud of Kai and the hard work he has put into this competition. I would like to thank all finalists and their lecturers for visiting and cooking at West London College yesterday and they were all an absolute credit to their colleges – The future of patisserie in the UK is looking very bright indeed!"