18 finalists announced for the Graduate Awards

The Craft Guild of Chefs has revealed the names of 18 finalists who will be competing at the Graduate Awards, which are due to take place on 4 September at the University of West London.

 

Candidates from the south participated in a heat at Brooklands College, while those from the north battled it out at Sheffield College earlier this week.

 

Chefs were required to pass the minimum scores in either kitchen or pastry in order to make it to the finals.

 

Kitchen chefs were asked to complete a range of tasks, including a multiple-choice exam on classical and modern cookery; preparing a whole trout; dividing lamb on the bone into two rumps; and following a recipe for a lemon meringue tart.

 

Meanwhile, pastry chefs were tested on their classical pastry knowledge through a selection of multiple choice questions; given four hours to create 12 pieces of fudge; and asked to follow a recipe for a pear and almond tart.

 

Ben Murphy, chair of the kitchen examiners and chef patron at Launceston Place in London’s Kensington, said: “Those who are successful will have the opportunity to go on to events such as Young National Chef of the Year and so we need to be confident they will be able to compete at that level.”

 

Sarah Frankland, chair of the pastry examiners and executive chef at Pennyhill Park in Surrey, added: “I’m delighted that we have been able to take eight pastry chefs through to the final stage as they all showed so much potential at the semi-final. Now I want them to push themselves further and grab this opportunity to learn, develop and grow both personally and professionally.”

 

The 10 chefs going through to the kitchen final are:

 

Rohin Geddes, the Royal Garden hotel
Joel Barton, CORD by Le Cordon Bleu
Kai-le Tran, Royal Air Force Club 
Nick Grant, Launceston Place
Inez Elfriede Roggema, Trivet
Angelo Vinci, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons
Paolo Marinosci, Mauro Colagreco at Raffles London at The OWO
Ross Boyd, Amuse by Kevin Dalgleish
Callum O’Grady, House of Commons
Ciaran Ryan, the Dog at Wingham

 

The eight chefs going through to the pastry final are:

 

Catherine Ens, Launceston Place
Jessica McKechnie, Cameron House
Jessica May Erskine, House of Commons
Deimante Duobaite, the Silver Birch
Christi Myburgh, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Corner
Ridhima Mhaiskar, the Dorchester 
Irene Magro, Rosewood London
Krishna Rajesh, Roe restaurant

Next month, the finalists will be invited to a two-day culinary tour that includes visits to Daylesford Organics, Cotswold Gold Oil, Little Oak Vineyard and North Cotswold Brewery.