Shortlist for AA Chef of the Year announced

The AA has announced the shortlist for its annual Chef of the Year award.

Renamed from the AA Chefs' Chef award, the accolade will be won by one of six contenders: Angela Hartnett, Ashley Palmer-Watts, Clare Smyth, Nigel Haworth, Sat Bains or Simon Rogan.

The winner, who will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Tom Kerridge, Daniel Clifford, Nathan Outlaw and Marcus Wareing, will be voted for by chefs who currently have an AA rosette award.

The winner will be announced at the AA Hospitality Awards on 26 September at London's Grosvenor House hotel, where the 2015 AA Chefs' Chef, Daniel Clifford, will oversee the menu. Hosted by comedian and actor Hugh Dennis, the event will see 23 winners receive awards, alongside the announcement of new three, four and five AA rosettes and AA red star hotels.

Details of the shortlisted chefs:

Sat Bains

Angela Hartnett â€" chef-proprietor, Murano, Mayfair and two Café Muranos in St James’s and Covent Garden. She has also partnered with Robin Hutson and Luke Holder at Hartnett Holder & Co at Lime Wood, Hampshire, and works in collaboration with Neil Borthwick at Merchants Tavern in Shoreditch.

Nigel Haworth - chef-proprietor, Northcote, Langho, Lancashire; and Ribble Valley Inns.

Ashley Palmer-Watts â€" heads up Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London and Crown Towers in Melbourne.

Simon Rogan â€" chef-proprietor, Umbel Restaurant Group, the parent company of a number of outlets including L'Enclume, Cartmel, Cumbria; two restaurants at the Midland hotel in Manchester - the French and Mr Cooper’s House & Garden; and Fera at Claridge’s, London.

Clare Smyth â€" former chef-proprietor at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and currently consultant chef for Gordon Ramsay Group, she is due to open her own restaurant in 2017.

Daniel Clifford and Robin Hutson scoop top AA awards >>

Tom Kerridge named AA Chefs’ Chef of the Year on night his TV series is launched >>

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