THE COMPETITION – A BATTLE OF STREET FOOD FUSIONS
Celebrating the winners of Tilda Chef Team of the Year 2025, in association with the Craft Guild of Chefs, as part of HRC’s Salon Culinaire.
This year’s competition saw eight chef teams battle it out to be crowned winner of 2025. Chef teams of two were given 45 minutes to create two street food dishes, one savoury and one sweet, using any of Tilda’s ambient range at the heart of each dish.
Judges were scoring against creativity, innovation, teamwork and a demonstration of street food fusions, together with taste, flavour and presentation.
2025 Contestants
Park Dean Resorts
RAF
The Savoy
Houston & Hawkes
Hermitage Road
Compass
Sodexo
The Wolseley
2025 Best In Class
Celebrating the winning team of 2025, Rajiv Erinjery & Prasad Thiagarajan from Park Dean Resorts.
“This significant victory is deeply meaningful to both Prasad and me.” Rajiv and Prasad met at last year’s Chef Team of the Year competition, where they joined forces from Park Dean Resorts and Park Plaza, London, creating what turned out to be a culinary dream team.
Their Winning Menu
Rajiv and Prasad’s street food inspired menu showcased creativity, innovation and superb execution.
For their savoury dish, they crafted a modern take on a classic biryani, by developing the traditional layered rice dish into crispy cutlets using Tilda’s Pure Basmati rice paired with prawns, vegetables and aromatic spices, finished with a king prawn and vegetable relish on top adding freshness and contrast to the dish.
Their sweet dish comprised of Sweet Coconut String Hoppers with Rice Jaggery Pudding. The rice hoppers, created with Tilda rice offered a light and fluffy texture pairing perfectly with the rice jaggery pudding – a blend of Tilda rice, lentils, rich jaggery and aromatic spices, combining tradition with indulgence.
Their teamwork, visually striking and delicious dishes crowned them winners of this year’s competition, taking home the £500 cash prize and trophy.
“Winning the coveted Tilda Chef of the Year title at the prestigious Salon Culinaire 2025 represents a pinnacle achievement in my professional career. Tilda is a globally recognized brand requiring no introduction. This is a win I will always treasure.”
The Savoy Chef Team Shine with Silver Win
Amongst a competitive field of contestants, The Savoy chef team also wowed judges securing second place and taking home the coveted silver award.
Polly and Jongynoon from The Savoy demonstrated outstanding technical excellence, paired with true teamwork. With Tilda rice at the heart of their street food inspired dishes, they executed bold flavours, skill and innovative technique which won them their silver award.
Their savoury dish, Thit Nuong with Com Do paired succulent Iberico pork, grilled over fragrant coconut charcoal with a creamy peanut sauce, aromatic wild rice and a side of tomato-infused rice, perfectly complimented by a golden, crispy-edged fried egg.
Their sweet dish comprised of a crispy banana sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf, also known as Chuoi Nep Nuong.
The rice was beautifully infused with coconut, almond, vanilla and citrus creating a striking flavour combination.
TILDA’S AMBIENT RANGE
Our ambient rice range has been chosen for this year’s competition, offering versatile options for the chef team’s menus.
We use a milling process which filters to eliminate starch and broken grains in all of our rice products to produce the highest quality every time, which cooks up light and separate.
Our basmati range is gluten free, vegan and vegetarian, creating an ideal solution in your kitchen and across your menus.