A lecturer who has trained more student chefs than he has had hot dinners has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship from University College Birmingham – where he has worked and inspired everyone around him for almost three decades.

Anthony Wright, who ran his own restaurant in Birmingham city centre before joining the University in 1998, received the honour at the University’s graduation ceremonies at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on Friday September 20.

Over the years, he has won a mountain of awards for his skills as a chef, but also for being an excellent mentor to student chefs, including those entering competitions.

Classically-trained, Anthony’s earliest work in the field was under the tutelage of two chefs who each had three Michelin stars, Pierre Koffman at La Tante Claire and Nico Ladenis at Chez Nico. These experiences led to Anthony winning the Junior MasterChef Prize and becoming head chef of a Michelin-starred kitchen at the age of just 24.

In 2016, Anthony was selected to be the UK’s candidate for the prestigious Bocuse d’Or competition before, in 2017, he received a Master of Culinary Arts - a prestigious title originally known as the Meilleur Ouvrier de Grande Bretagne, established by Albert and Michel Roux and representing the ultimate accolade for chefs in the UK.

In the process, he became the first chef lecturer to receive the award in its 33-year history, and did so with the highest score of any Master of Culinary Arts ever recorded.