An elegant and ambitious menu celebrating migration and modern British Asian Society propelled a team from University College Birmingham, including Peter Price from Ross-on-Wye, to the top of the presitigious Zest Quest Asia 2017.

Peter, along with Hugo Montgomery and Alexander McLaren, saw off stiff competition to be crowned the Zest Quest Asia champions at a gala dinner and awards ceremony held at the Hilton London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 in February. The headline sponsor for this competition is Panasonic.

Their winning menu meant the team, and their tutor, Lewis Walker, were awarded a trip of a lifetime, courtesy of headline sponsor Panasonic.

Mr Walker kept a diary of the trip to which Peter added further details. Mr Walker said:?“It was an incredible life experience and definitely worth all the hard work and heartache throughout the competition.”

The adventure started in Tokyo where they were generously hosted by the Hilton Tokyo. The team spent time learning traditional Japanese cooking techniques such as Teppenyaki and Kaiseki, and helped prepare the evening service. Peter said:?“We then had an amazing, eye-opening and traditional dinner in the hotel’s Japanese restaurant, Juniso.”

During their stay in Tokyo they visited a fish market and Peter described tasting sushi and ‘beautiful, clean sashimi for breakfast’.

They visited Kappabashi Street, which is a long road solely dedicated to kitchen supplies and equipment - described in the diary as toy shops for chefs. They spent time looking at all the kitchen appliances and gadgets before they reached the small corner of the street housing the finest knife makers in Japan, with some knives costing up to £5,000.

They also visited the more usual tourist attractions such as a local temple and Yoyogi Park, a stunning woodland park right in the middle of the city.

The group travelled by Bullet train to join up with Iain Phillips, UK Sales & Marketing Manager for Panasonic Commercial Microwaves. They were welcomed like royalty at the Panasonic Research and Development Factory, and given a tour of this cutting edge facility.

The next day was, in contrast, a visit to the mountains of Kobe where the Wagyu breed of beef is farmed. After the tour of the farm the group enjoyed dinner at the restaurant owned by the farm where Peter said:?“We were amazed at the quality of beef.”

After this once in a lifetime opportunity the group were soon planning their next award winning menu.