Ten young chefs make Craft Guild Graduate Awards finals
Ten young chefs have made it through to the Craft Guild of Chefs' 2014 Graduate Awards final.
They are:
• Reece George Thomas Cosier, Landmark hotel
• Wayne Herrington, Landmark hotel
• Connor Godfrey, the Ritz
• Ruth Hansom, the Ritz
• John Patrick Grabecki, Galvin at Windows
• Victoria Scupham, Royal Household
• Joe Bose, House of Commons
• Ross McMillan, Stirling Management Centre
• Oliver Snowden, General Tarleton
• James Newton, Royal Garden hotel
Their selection comes after 20 young chefs from across the country were put through their paces in a series of tough culinary challenges at Sheffield College and the University of West London on Wednesday 11 June.
The 10 successful chefs will now attend a final exam on 28 August at University College Birmingham, and a prestigious awards ceremony on the 5 September at the Landmark hotel where they will find out if they have successfully "graduated". As well as the Graduate certificates and Highest Achiever Award, there is also an Employer's Award for Excellence in Training.
Talking about this year's finalists, awards organiser and Craft Guild vice-president, Steve Munkley said: "The final stage is always an exciting one as we get closer to finding out who the 2014 Graduates are going to be, and this year is no exception. The judges were really impressed with all of the semi-finalists, the standard was so high and this is shown by the fact we have 10 finalists. However to be crowned a Graduate they must now achieve a score of 85% in the final exam. Any previous Graduate knows, this isn't an easy task but earning the right to join our list of talented chefs makes all the hard work, dedication and hours of practice absolutely worthwhile."
Following the regional events senior chef de partie, John Grabecki from Galvin at Windows said via Twitter: "What an experience. Everything went well…I think @Craft_Guild up to you now!" While demi chef de partie, Victoria Scupham from the Royal Household tweeted: "It was an amazing experience, I loved it, fingers crossed."