Budding chefs Ian Wee and Fahd Shah Mohammad Nizam, both 15, whipped up chilli crab and bubur chacha for the judges of the annual iChef Challenge finals yesterday.

The two St Patrick's School students were among 10 teams battling to come up with the tastiest local specialities - one main course and one dessert - in line with this year's theme of My Singapore Food, to mark the country's 50th birthday.

They also had to incorporate a mystery ingredient, which turned out to be the jambu fruit.

The teams comprised students from various secondary schools. The eventual champions were another team from St Patrick's School, Benedict Fong and Donovan Ang, who won with their dishes of assam pedas fish, or fish cooked in tamarind juice, and pisang pengat or bananas in coconut milk.

The iChef Challenge, organised by staff and students from Republic Polytechnic's School of Hospitality, is in its fifth year.

This year's event, held at Republic Polytechnic's Oliva Training Restaurant and Kitchen, also featured the iMix mocktail competition, with teams creating their own non-alcoholic concoctions.

Janice Heng