Having battled their way through the ‘closely fought’ semi-finals, the 2018/19 finalists are:
- Oliver Thompson, 20 The Bull (Beaumaris)
- Thomas Martin, 22, sous chef at 13 Market Street (Caerphilly)
- Sion Hughes, 20, Carden Park (Chester)
- Daniel Britton, 21, Celtic Manor Resort (Newport)
They each had three hours to cook and serve a four-cover, three-course meal, which had to include a vegan starter, main course using Welsh Lamb and dessert using Welsh honey.
They will now go head-to-head at the Welsh International Culinary Championships (WICC) on 28 February, where the winner will be announced.
As well as automatic seeding to the CGOC’s Young National Chef of the Year semi-finals, he will also win an all-expenses paid trip to the Worldchefs Congress 2020 (where he will be part of the Worldchefs Young Chefs Club) and Netherlands study tour with Koppert Cress.
Chairman of judges Colin Gray (Capital Cuisine), commented: “There was some very competent cooking across the board, even though (the chefs) were in a different kitchen environment with judges watching their every move.
“In my role as chairman of the judges, I decided to up the game by stipulating that their starter had to be vegan.
“They all coped admirably well and there was an interesting selection of dishes where they had to think outside of the box.”
Fellow judges include Danny Burke (Olive Tree Catering); Nick Davies (Cambrian Training Company); and retired chef Terry Woolcock.
As well as providing a platform for junior chefs to ‘demonstrate their culinary skills’, the bi-annual competition is proving to be a ‘fertile hunting ground’ for CAW, which is currently recruiting its Junior Culinary Team Wales to compete at the Culinary Olympics next year.
The full list of semi-finalists is as below:
- Oliver Thompson, 20 The Bull (Beaumaris)
- Thomas Martin, 22, sous chef at 13 Market Street (Caerphilly)
- Sion Hughes, 20, Carden Park (Chester)
- Daniel Britton, 21, Celtic Manor Resort (Newport)
- Calum Smith, 17, Shrewsbury College
- James Jarvis, 18, Shrewsbury College
- James Whalley, 22, Tyddyn Llan,
- George Woodhead, 21, Coast Restaurant,.