Richard Henderson and Alessandro Calzavacca triumph in Young Chef Young Waiter competition

Richard Henderson of Restaurant Hywel Jones at Lucknam Park in Wiltshire and Alessandro Calzavacca of Jean-Georges at the Connaught, London, have been named Young Chef and Young Waiter of the Year respectively.

The winners of the newly revamped competition, which was originally launched in 1979 and reintroduced this year after a break of seven years, were announced at ceremony presented by John Torode of BBC TV’s MasterChef at Quaglino’s restaurant in London, last night.

They triumphed after a two-day final held at Westminster Kingsway College, in which 16 chefs and 16 waiters completed a series of exacting tasks.

Henderson beat Ryan Baker of Northall restaurant at the Corinthia Hotel London into second place in the Young Chef competition, with Lewis Glaister of Bluebird restaurant, London, placed third.

Meanwhile, the judges voted Calzavacca into the top spot in the Young Waiter event, followed by Salvatore Delle Donne and Andrea La Cognata, both from the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, in second and third place respectively.

Theo Randall, head chef in the Young Chef event, said Henderson had cooked well under stress to produce dishes which were “absolutely flawless”.

Head waiter judge Simon King, who was the winner of the competition in 2000, described Calzavacca as having a “very bright future ahead of him”, having shown “attention to detail across all tasks”.

The Young Chef Young Waiter competition was relaunched by Robert Walton of Nth Degree Global in partnership with UKHospitality and the Restaurant Association.