It's the first time the chefs, who fly out on April 15, have taken part in the prestigious competition, and new season Welsh lamb for their main course will going too. The team begins its campaign in the hot kitchen element of the contest on the opening day on April 20 cooking a three course menu for 90 people before presenting a cold table display two days later. "The best food product we have is Welsh lamb," says team manager Graham Tinsley, co-owner of The Castle Hotel, Conwy. "Everybody waits for it to arrive in the restaurant in spring, especially the chefs. It's like a breath of fresh air. When you are cooking against the best chefs in the world, it's important you have the best ingredients available to use." Because it's the chefs' Singapore debut, team member Nick Davies from Cambrian Training Company in Welshpool personally inspected the lambs at Randall Parker Foods' abattoir near Llanidloes. "Because it's an important competition, I wanted to see the lambs myself and can vouch for the quality of the 12 that are being flown out," he says. "New season Welsh lamb is beautiful because it's tender, fresh and sweet tasting." The team is also using Halen Mon sea salt from Anglesey. The chefs will be using the organic celery sea salt in their starter, spiced sea salt in the main course and vanilla sea salt in the dessert. The team has chosen a Las Vegas casino theme for the cold display, which includes a showpiece one armed bandit crafted from sugar paste by Sally Owen from Coleg Llandrillo Cymru. Team mate Lee Jeynes' contribution is a Harley Davidson motorbike made from salt dough to the display. Held once every four years, the FHA Culinary Challenge is open to national culinary teams, who battle for the famous Lion Trophy. Wales is one of eight countries that have been invited by host nation Singapore to compete. The others are Switzerland, Australia, Germany, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Malaysia and New Zealand. "We will be up against some very good national teams but I believe we are as good as them when we all work together. Of the world's six major culinary competitions, this is the only one that we have not attended and our mission is to come back with a medal to complete the set," says Tinsley. On their return from Singapore, the team will begin preparing for the Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg in November. The team, captained by Wayne Roberts, executive chef at Portmeirion Hotel, also includes Toby Beevers, executive chef at Chester University, Gennaro Adaggio, La Dolce Vita, Shrewsbury who lives in Welshpool, Hefin Roberts, Ye Olde Bull's Head, Beaumaris, Chris Owen, Castle Hotel, Conwy, Danny Burke, development chef for Brakes Creative Foods, Flint and Mark Jones, chef at Henbury Hall, Macclesfield, and newcomer Sue Leacy, head chef at The Quay Hotel and Spa, Deganwy. At this challenge, they will cook a starter of pressed cod and parsley terrine, creamed shellfish tartlet, poached quail's egg with lemon hollandaise, crab and carrot purée, asparagus and marinated cucumber salad. Main course is roast cannon of Welsh lamb with creamed Savoy cabbage, butternut squash purée, herb coated potato and an offal fritter. Dessert is dark chocolate mousse with a soft passion fruit centre, white chocolate and vanilla sponge with chocolate sauce, mango sorbet and tropical fruit salsa.