The competition, held in partnership with Unilever Food Solutions’ brand Knorr, saw Julien Pickersgill, British Culinary Federation Young Chef of the Year; Josh Bingham, highest achiever at the Craft Guild of Chefs Graduate Awards; and the soon to be revealed highest achiever at the Academy of Culinary Arts Awards of Excellence automatically being seeded a place in the final.
They will be joined by young chefs James Goodyear, April Partridge, Daniel Lee, Claire Willett and Luke Selby, who were named following the semi-final cook-offs at Sheffield City College held on June 10 and at Le Cordon Bleu cookery school in London on June 25.
Prior to a Mentor Day at the Knorr development kitchen in Leatherhead, Surrey, on September 9, the chefs will receive the criteria for the final and be given details of the ingredient to be used in each course. They will then compete in the final at the Restaurant Show on October 7. The winner and two runners up will be revealed along with the National Chef of the Year 2014 at an awards ceremony following the show.
Mark Sargeant, YNCOTY ambassador and a former winner of the title, said: “Winning Young National Chef of the Year was a fantastic part of my life and a stepping stone to the rest of my career.
“We all looked over the dishes and I speak on behalf of all the judges when I say that we’ve all been incredibly impressed with the standard of cooking coming from these young chefs. There was so much raw talent on show, which makes me excited for the future of the industry and proud to be the competition’s ambassador.”
Steve Munkley, Craft Guild vice president and chairman of judges, said: “Once again these young chefs have demonstrated the extraordinary talent that we have at this level, giving us plenty of reason for optimism. I’m looking forward to some impressive cooking on October 7.”
The finalists:
Julien Pickersgill, House of Commons, London
Josh Bingham, Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, Oxfordshire
Luke Selby, Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, Oxfordshire
James Goodyear, Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, Oxfordshire
April Partridge, The Club at The Ivy, London
Claire Willett, Wyboston Lakes, Bedfordshire
Daniel Lee, Brooklands Hotel, Surrey
ACA winner TBC
For more information visit: www.craftguildofchefs.org or follow @TNCOTY #YNCOTY on Twitter.