City of Oxford College student Ryan Davies presents this week's Chef Special

I am Ryan Davies, aged 18 from Blackbird Leys. I am a student at City of Oxford College. I did cookery at school, but wasn’t very good at it. Despite that, I was really interested in pursuing it and wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I have improved massively since being at college; it’s more hands-on and working in real kitchens and cafes means that you put the skills you learn into practice straight away.

I am completing my third and final year in hospitality and catering with a Level 3 diploma in supervision and leadership. As part of my studies I work at the college’s Waterside Restaurant, as well as at the cafes on campus.

I am interested in good- looking food. I enjoy playing with presentation and making the ordinary look special. I particularly like working with desserts and pastry as you can create really special dishes.

I like to experiment all the time, so I don’t really have a signature dish. I am Welsh and will be running a theme night at The Waterside Restaurant on January 15, which is inspired by my Welsh heritage. That will include dishes such as Welsh lamb and a Welsh pancake (crempogs) with a raspberry coulis.

My guilty pleasure when I’m too tired to cook would have to be pizza from Dominos.

My favourite places to eat and drink around Oxfordshire are places that do fast food well – Byron Burger and Gourmet Burger Kitchen are favourites.

I like to try different things, but in terms of cooking my favourite type of cuisine would have to be desserts and pastries.

I am inspired by Gordon Ramsay.

You can tell that he was determined to succeed and worked extremely hard to get where he is today.

RECIPE:

A lot thicker and fluffier than the traditional pancakes
* 2 oz/ 55g butter
* 15 fl oz/ 450 ml warm buttermilk
* 10 oz/ 275g all-purpose/plain flour
* 3oz/ 75g sugar
* 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
* ½ tsp salt
* 1 tbsp vinegar
* 2 eggs, well beaten

Add the butter to the buttermilk.

Mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and vinegar.

Beat the sugar and eggs together and combine all the ingredients to form a batter.

Leave the batter at room temperature for between one and three hours.

When you are ready to serve, heat a pan with some oil and pour the batter in to the preferred size.

The traditional Welsh pancakes are smaller in diameter than British equivalents.

Cook until slightly brown on both sides, flipping half way through.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

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