Royal Academy of Culinary Arts announces winners of 2022 Annual Awards of Excellence

The three winners of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts (RACA) Annual Awards of Excellence (AAE) have been announced.

John Williams MBE, chairman of RACA, and Sergio Rebecchi, chairman of service for the AAE, revealed the victorious trio at a ceremony at the Rosewood London hotel.

The candidate who received the highest mark in each section was named Royal Academy of Culinary Arts Young Chef, Young Pastry Chef and Young Waiter of the Year.

The Kitchen award went to Thomas Fenemer, junior sous chef at the Newt in Somerset; the Pastry award to Caitlin Walsh, pastry chef de partie at Harrods, London; and the Service award to Daniela Mayer, assistant restaurant manager at the Gleneagles hotel, Scotland.

The Gala Dinner was also an opportunity to treat and thank the 28 chefs, pastry chefs and waiters who achieved RACA AAE 2022 during the finals held between May and June.

Judges included Williams, Rebecchi, Jason Atherton, Martyn Nail and Hywel Jones, Yolande Stanley MCA, Sarah Hartnett, and John Cousins.

Williams said: “The Annual Awards of Excellence provides a much-needed opportunity to showcase the exemplary talent of our brightest young chefs, pastry chefs and waiters working throughout our culinary and hospitality industries.

"I hope that by taking part in the process, all candidates are motivated and inspired to continually better themselves through training and experiences, and then pass their knowledge onto others as they progress through their careers.”

Richard Larkin, chief executive of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts, added: “The Annual Awards of Excellence remains the essence of the Academy’s education philosophy and was, in 1983 when it was launched, the first of the Academy’s many initiatives that have raised the bar and set standards for the industry over the past three decades.”

For the full list of AAE achievers, click here.