Robert Dant wins Compass Chef title

Dant rustled up a starter of bream pan fried in macadamia oil with smoked haddock and potato brandade, braised fennel, sweet peppers, curried cauliflower,toasted macadamia nuts and macadamia nut milk. Runners up in second and third place were Lesek Karpinsk of Chartwells and Paul Dickinson of Restaurant Associates. Dant has won a week long culinary trip to South Africa courtesy of sponsors SAMAC, the Southern African Macadamia Growers' Association, as well as a stage at Jason Atherton's new restaurant Pollen Street Social set to open in February. He'll be joined by the Junior Compass Chef of the Year, Jack Crow, who also shone at the competition creating a bramley apple crumble with a caramelized macadamia topping. Nick Vadis executive chef of Compass UK & Ireland commented: "This year's competition has been incredibly close with each chef producing food to be proud of. The support of the Southern African Macadamia Growers' Association has been fundamental and underpinned the whole competition with the use of a quality and versatile ingredient which has really encouraged the chefs' creativity. "What's also been great is the mix of awards we've seen ie. The Junior Winner came from Restaurant Associates our fine dining arm and Robert the Senior Winner from Chartwells our education sector, something that really demonstrates the breadth of talent we have at Compass." The competition took place at this year's Restaurant Show which ran from 11-13 October at Earls Court 2, London.