TWO TALENTED, young Welsh chefs have been praised for their dedication after finishing sixth against the world’s best chefs at the Global Chefs Challenge final in Singapore.
Wrexham-based Sion Hughes, 26, head chef at The Spa at Carden Park, near Chester and Calum Smith, 23, pastry chef at Shrewsbury School, won silver medals when representing the Culinary Association of Wales (CAW) in the final, held at the Worldchefs Congress & Expo 2026.
Of the 16 finalists from around the world, Sion was the joint youngest and, supported by Calum, was just half a point behind fifth placed Australia. Their mentor, Graham Tinsley, executive head chef at Carden Park Hotel and Spa, travelled with them to the final.
The Welsh chefs cooked a four course menu for 12 people, including a vegan starter, a halibut fish course, three cuts of veal in the main course and Valrhona chocolate and Dilmah tea in the dessert.
CAW president Arwyn Watkins, OBE, said: “It’s an amazing achievement by Sion and Calum to secure silver medals and sixth place, just half a point outside the top five, against some of the best culinary arts countries in the world.
“We now focus all our efforts on hosting the next Global Chefs Challenge Finals in Wales at the Worldchefs Congress & Expo at ICC Wales, Newport from May 16 to 19, 2026.”
Sion said: “I’m proud of the achievement and I couldn’t have done it without Calum. It would have been nice to finish in the top five, but at least we know that we delivered exactly what we had been practicing for months.”
Calum added: “Sion delivered over and above what we had practiced and there was no negative feedback from the judges. It shows our ambition that we were looking for a top five finish.”
Graham praised the dedication of both chefs who have practiced together at Carden Park every Monday since the spring. “When you have chefs with that passion, it makes mentoring so much easier,” he said.
“Going into the final and looking at all the competing countries, I was looking for a top 10 place but Sion and Calum produced even better dishes than they had done during their best practice.
“They couldn’t have done any more and I thought they had an outside chance of the top three. Looking at the results, there were much larger countries below Wales in the table.
“You have to remember the journey that these two young chefs have been on over the past two years. The competition started with more than 100 countries which were whittled down to the best 16.”
That journey began in February last year at the North Europe heat in Rimini, Italy where former Junior Culinary Team Wales teammates, Sion and Calum, won through to the global final as runners up with a silver medal.
The Worldchefs Congress 2024 ended with the congress bell being presented to Wales who will host the next global event in 2026 – the first time it will have been held in the UK.
Sion is now looking forward to 2026 and has offered to return the favour by supporting Calum if he’s chosen to represent Wales in one of the finals at the event.
Calum has entered the Junior Chef of Wales competition at the Welsh International Culinary Championships 2025 at ICC Wales next January and plans to compete to represent Wales at the congress and expo 2026.
