COMPETITIONS

The City of Oxford Guild of Chefs in partnership with The Food Heroes presents you The OxFood Hero Competition.

A brand new competition held for the first time in April 2025 at the City of Oxford College. 

The OxFood Hero Competition was designed to inspire and motivate chefs from all ranks whether Chef de Partie, Junior Sous, Head Chef or another. At the City of Oxford Guild of Chefs we believe it is important to value all that work within our trade, creating opportunities that reward passionate individuals. 

Legendary chef Pierre Koffmann is the head of the The Food Heroes family. Under his expert direction the panel of judges crowned the OxFood Hero of 2025. Asia Mihelis with her incredible dish of 'Potato & chocolate mousse, potato ice cream, potato & chocolate chips, passion fruit, potato and chocolate beignets'. 

The Task 

Competitors were required to produce a show stopping dish with Koffmann’s Blue potatoes as the main element and star of the show for a panel of judges.  

Potatoes are a humble yet extremely versatile ingredient so the judges were expecting to see an array of imaginative and skilfully crafted dishes. There was no limit as to what kind of dish was served, be it a bar snack, starter, main or dessert, impressing the judges with creativity and skill was the key to succeeding in this competition. 

Each candidate was be provided with 2kg of washed Koffmann Blue potatoes and given 3 hours to create their dish. Competitors could use any other ingredient they desired to create their dish. All other ingredients to produce the dish other than the Koffmann Blue potatoes were to be supplied by the candidates.

The competition kitchens were set up as individual stations each with a small fridge, sink, induction hob and basic utensils, pans etc. Kitchen appliances such as ovens and deep fat fryers required to share. They were permitted to bring any additional equipment you desire to create your dish,

One winner

Asia was crowned 2025's OxFood Hero. She was invited to the annual City of Oxford Guild of Chefs Gala Dinner at Trinity College. Asia was handed her award and prize by legendary chef Pierre Koffmann during the evenings award ceremony.   

The prize;  Asia won the fantastic prize of a meal for two at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, previously Pierre Koffmann's world renowned 3 Michelin starred Le Tante Claire before he passed it on to protege Gordon Ramsay.

Entry guidelines  

Applicants had to have been a chef with over 4 years of experience in the industry.