One of the newest chefs to join the Daily Cooks team, Sophie Wright learned to cook at home with her nan and mum, where food was a central part of her young life. Holidays were spent in France and she enjoyed trying any new food experience from oysters to snails. When Sophie left school, she had one ambition – to secure a place at the prestigious Westminster Kingsway College to learn to be a professional chef.
Sophie studied at Westminster Kingsway College in London where she impressed the chef lecturers with his fantastic ideas and professional culinary skills. During her time at college, Sophie worked with the chef lecturers – particularly her mentor Vince Cottam – worked in the College’s own fully working restaurant, The Vincent Rooms, and spent her first year's summer holiday working in a restaurant in Italy.
During her three years at Westminster, Sophie was a regular competitor in the many national competitions and culinary salons held across the country, and won 15 medals, including 8 golds, the most prestigious of which was the Gold Best in Class award at the Salon Culinaire at Hotelympia. She also won the top prize in the NZ-UK Link Foundation Culinary Challenge in association with The Craft Guild of Chefs which offers a young British chef the chance to work in New Zealand with top chefs. Sophie was not only the first female chef to win this tough challenge, she was also the youngest competitor. Sophie has continued to compete and was one of the final three competitors chosen to represent the UK in the World Chef Skills Competition in Tokyo in 2007.
