The sixth colleges chosen to advance to February’s final were Colchester Institute, North Hertfordshire College, Sheffield Hallam University, The Sheffield College, University of West London and Westminster Kingsway College.
The final will be held at Mr Todiwala’s Kitchen restaurant in London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, Slough.
The prize for the winner has not yet been announced but previous years’ awards have been ten-day, gastronomic trips to different culinary cities across Asia.
Zest Quest Asia was set up by Towiwala along with his wife Pervin Todiwala and The Master Chefs of Great Britain to help combat what he saw as skill shortages and gaps in the knowledge of Asian cookery brought about by stricter immigrations policies.
Todiwala said: “After four years, the relevance of Zest Quest Asia as a channel for future talent in Asian food industry cannot be greater.
“The popularity of Asian cuisine among consumers is still evident, yet every year it gets harder and harder to find trained Asian chefs, so we need to cultivate home grown chefs who are well versed in cooking authentic Asian food.
“Every college that has fielded a winning Zest Quest Asia team; Westminster Kingsway College, University College Birmingham, Farnborough College and Milton Keynes College, has told us that their success did have a positive impact on their overall attitude and approach to Asian cuisine.
“Therefore, I am still hoping that one day we will achieve one of Zest Quest Asia’s aims of embedding classical Asian cooking within the curriculum.”
Tickets for Zest Quest Asia’s gala dinner where the winner and prize will be announced, go on sale on January 2 2018.